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| Ahmadiyya persecution and Australian connection (File photo) Listed to Audio Report |
Source/Credit: Radio Australia | ABC
By Sen Lam | April 6, 2011
A leading Indonesian constitutional lawyer says the government could overturn the decision by sixteen provinces to ban the Ahmadiyah Islamic group, if it wanted to.
Adnan Buyung Nasution is widely regarded as Indonesia's leading advocate and trial lawyer. He says he's ashamed the government did so little to support the Ahmadis' right to freedom of worship.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Adnan Buyung Nasution, Indonesian human rights and trial lawyer, and Honorary Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
[TRANSCRIPT]
NASUTION: According to the Indonesian constitution, although we have a distribution of power for the autonomies in the region, yet there are at least five areas or affairs, which are still in the hands of the central government. That is, foreign affairs, defence, financial, religious matters, as well as education. Now, having that in mind, any regulation issued by those regional governments in my opinion, is against the constitution.
LAM: If it's against the constitution, does it concern you that the centre, the government is not doing anything about it?
NASUTION: Ya, very much so. I'm not only concerned, I'm ashamed that the central government didn't do anything yet.
I reminded them, with my speeches and my article in newspapers, that the central government, in this case, the Minister of Home Affairs, is entitled within ninety days - three months - to overrule any decree or regulation made by the regions - either by the Governors or by the Districts or Regent. Yet he didn't do yet (sic).
LAM: Do you think the government's stance perhaps reflects the wider community attitudes in Indonesia - that they haven't done anything yet?
NASUTION: No, no... I think the government is rather slow and perhaps - this is the weakness of the government - does not want to confront directly, this diehard group of (radical) Muslims.
LAM: And of course, in February, we had an incident where three Ahmadis were beaten to death, and five seriously injured...
NASUTION: Yes, yes, that was in West Java...
LAM: That's right.. Do you think the police could have done more, to protect the Ahmadis?
NASUTION: Certainly. Number one, the mistake in my opinion was, when there was a threat coming to a person who own that house, the police should send their troops to maintain law and order, to protect the person. Instead, what the police did was to evacuate that person. That was the wrong attitude of the police.
LAM: Indeed, I understand that even one Ahmadi who was himself injured, is now under investigation for so-called "inciting hatred" because he refused to leave the premises?
NASUTION: Ya, not only that, I'm afraid he was also accused of spreading the teachings of Ahmadis to the surroundings, ya. There were many other incidents, from Lombok up to West Java, up to the east Java, central Java, west Java - all over Indonesia, even in the small island of Lombok. There were people, their houses were burnt, their mosque was burnt and the whole village was sent by force to move to another village.
This kind of actions of the radical Muslims should be taken to the law process, law (legal) proceedings.
LAM: Does it concern you then, that there doesn't seem to be any great public outcry over this persecution of the Ahmadis?
NASUTION: Ya, that's something that's worrying me too. But on the other hand, I remember what one of the very prestigious Muslim leaders, Mohamad Natsir, the late Mohamad Natsir once told me or mentioned to me, "Buyung, if the government allows these radicals to speak to up, spreading hate to the majority of Muslim people, then we the moderate intellectual leaders couldn't compete with them."
They became certainly more aggressive.
Two steps must be taken simultaneously. Number one is government - the police as a government apparatus and law enforcement, should take concrete steps to arrest those people and taken to court for proceedings.
There're still many Indonesian clerics or Indonesian Ulamas, Muslim leaders who are moderate, intellectual and very, very advanced in their learning of Islam - they should speak up to counter the arguments or the campaign of these radical Muslims.
They should not just wait and wait, but have to do something pro-active, to counter the arguments.
Read original post here: Indonesian provinces' ban on Ahmadiyah unconstitutional
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