| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
SBY is no statesman! – Withdraw World Statesman Award
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network Petition Appeal - May 6, 2013
On May 6, 2013, in Jakarta, a coalition of victims of religious discrimination and human rights groups in Indonesia urged the foundation to drop its plan to give the award. We support this call.
The foundation says that it works "on behalf of religious freedom and human rights throughout the world" and "promotes peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution."
It is regrettable that the foundation is so ready to bestow such an award without first seriously examining the situation in the country to see if the recipient truly merits the award.
In Indonesia there is continuing religious violence, governmental inaction, and official impunity. Giving President Yudhoyono the World Statesman Award dishonors to both the foundation and mocks its recipient.
Under President Yudhoyono’s leadership, religious intolerance in Indonesia has escalated. Houses of worship have been attacked and the followers of religious minority faiths have faced discrimination, assault and worse. Police and public officials often refuse to stand up to the intolerant bullies. Sometimes they take the side of the attackers, using their office to spread bigotry and enforce discrimination.
President Yudhoyono has established an unprecedented discriminatory legal infrastructure in Indonesia. He has issued a discriminatory regulations, defended the blasphemy law at the Constitutional Court, and promulgated a decree threatening to five years in jail for anyone who “propagates” the Ahmadiyah teaching.
In recent years conflict and repression have escalated in West Papua, where its indigenous people face discrimination in their own land. At the end of April, there were at least 40 Papuan political prisoners.
Under President Yudhoyono leadership, impunity continues for past crimes against humanity and war crimes. Police and military often act with limited accountability throughout the archipelago.
Sign petition here: https://www.change.org/petitions/sby-is-no-statesman-foundation-should-withdraw-world-statesman-award-to-indonesia-s-president#share.
Background
The Appeal of Conscience Foundation plans to give the award to President Yudhoyono on May 30 in New York City.
When President Yudhoyono first took office, he promised that his administration would promote human rights and tolerance. Nine years later, the prospects for accountability for past rights violations have receded; religious intolerance has grown. Indonesia’s security forces have become increasingly abusive in West Papua. Police and soldiers who violate human rights are rarely held accountable. Serious human rights violations by members of the military are tried in military courts where soldiers, if convicted, receive light sentences.
Recent examples of religious persecution include the March 21 demolition of the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi after an order from the regional government. Four Ahmadiyya places of worship were closed within a month in West Java. Last August, members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, were forced from their homes members of the majority Sunni attacked them for so-called blasphemy. They continue to struggle in a makeshift camp in a sports stadium.
In 2006, President Yudhoyono issued a regulation on building houses of worship that makes it extremely difficult for religious minorities to construct their buildings. He signed a law that allows the listing of only six religions on Indonesian ID cards, basically discriminating against more than 350 other small religions. In 2009, Yudhoyono sent his cabinet members to defend the blasphemy law when it was challenged at the Constitutional Court. They mobilized Muslim militias to harass the petitioners and their lawyers. In April 2010, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, which provides criminal penalties for those who express religious beliefs that deviate from the six officially-recognized religions. The court said it is lawful to restrict minority beliefs because it allows for the “maintenance of public order.” In 2008, Yudhoyono issued an anti-Ahmadiyah decree, threatening to five years jail term for anyone who “propagates” the group’s teachings.
An ad hoc tribunal to investigate and prosecute the 1997-98 the disappearance of human rights activists has yet to be established, though it has been approved by the legislature. Yudhoyono's own coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs and Attorney General have rejected the official human rights commission's findings that the government's anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966 - which included mass killings of up to one million people, enslavement, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance - constituted a crime against humanity. The truth commission and human rights courts authorized by the 2006 law on Aceh have yet to be established. There has been no accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian forces in Timor-Leste, where as many as 183,000 were killed, or West Papua, where an estimated 100,000 have died.
On taking office, President Yudhoyono declared that solving the September 2004 murder of Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia’s best known human rights activist, would be a test of "whether Indonesia had changed." The President and Indonesia have failed the test. He has refused to release the report of the fact-finding team he set up early in his Presidency. The murder involved the national intelligence agency and serving and former military officers; none of them have been brought to justice.
Rights groups reject religious freedom award for Yudhoyono
Jakarta Post - May 7, 2013
Margareth S. Aritonang and Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta -- A coalition of victims of religious discrimination and rights groups have urged New York-based interfaith organization Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF) to drop its plan to give President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the World Statesmen Award in recognition of his work to support human rights and religious freedom in the country.
The foundation has scheduled the award presentation for May 30 in New York, when the President will be on a working visit.
The coalition, which includes the Shia and the Ahmadiyah minority sects and the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) and the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church congregations, all of which have suffered discrimination, staged a rally in front of the United States (US) Embassy in Jakarta on Monday to protest the ACF’s choice of Yudhoyono for the 2013 award.
It said that Yudhoyono did not deserve the award because he had failed to protect the rights of minority groups in the country.
“How could SBY be given the award while we are being discriminated against and even attacked when performing our basic religious rights?” Filadelfia’s Rev. Palti Panjaitan said.
The protesters demanded the US Embassy relay their message to President Barack Obama and the ACF.
Local rights groups have also criticized the move, saying it was an insult to victims of religious prosecution.
“We are deeply disappointed at ACF’s decision. We object because the President has failed to enforce the law to protect religious minority groups. He appears to have also ignored the conduct of state officials who have blatantly rebelled against the law, such as in the case of GKI Yasmin,” Choirul Anam of Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) said, referring to a Supreme Court ruling stipulating that the building permit for GKI Yasmin was legal and ordered the Bogor administration to reopen the place of worship.
Building permit issues have been the most cited reasons to justify discrimination against religious minorities, while another reason is blasphemy, of which Islamic minorities have been continuously accused, such as the Shia and the Ahmadiyah.
Authorities, including the police, seem to take the side of the perpetrators after attacks on the Shia and the Ahmadiyah by not strictly applying the law to the attackers but instead relocating the victims for safety reasons, which ultimately leaves them living in limbo for years.
The government’s reluctance to take firm action against vigilante groups has emboldened others to attack minority groups elsewhere, such the weekend ransacking of the Ahmadiyah village of Tenjowaringin in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, last year.
Members of the Sampang Shia community, who were forced to take shelter in a local sports stadium after being attacked by the majority Sunni for so-called blasphemy, are struggling to survive as the local administration stopped suppling their daily needs as from May 1 due to budget constraints.
“There has to be something wrong with the process of making the choice because I believe that Rabbi [Arthur] Scheiner [ACF’s founder] will consider the sufferings of religious minority groups as he is a campaigner for human rights,” said Choirul Anam of the Human Rights Working Group.
Teuku Faizasyah, presidential spokesman for foreign affairs, said on Monday that Yudhoyono deserved the award for his achievements in contributing to the global interfaith movement.
“Some cases of religious intolerance do happen, but that should not blind his critics to the President’s achievements,” Faizasyah said.
See also:
 |
Indonesia Indoleft Archive Indonesia links Indonesia News Digest News services on Indonesia Publications & videos on Indonesia Reports & articles on Indonesia Statements & press releases on Indonesia