Faktor penting keberhasilan pendirian gereja di Indonesia

oleh Testriono
10 Februari 2012
Sumber: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=30978&lan=ba&sp=0


Jakarta, Indonesia – Di Bogor, jemaat GKI Yasmin telah dilarang oleh pemerintah setempat untuk menyelenggarakan kebaktian di gereja mereka selama bertahun-tahun. Mahkamah Agung telah memutuskan bahwa pembatalan izin gereja tersebut melanggar hukum. Namun, GKI Yasmin dan banyak gereja serupa tidak mendapat perlindungan dari gangguan sekelompok orang, yang meski kecil tetapi cukup vokal, yang telah mencoba menghalangi gereja-gereja mendapatkan izin mendirikan bangunan tempat ibadah – dan dalam beberapa kasus telah menggalang massa untuk menyerang gereja dan jemaatnya.

Kasus GKI Yasmin memang mengganggu, namun tidak menggambarkan keadaan semua gereja di negara ini. Di seantero Indonesia, ada banyak gereja yang berhasil mendapatkan izin pembangunan gereja, dan jemaatnya beribadah dengan tenang di tengah masyarakat yang majemuk dari segi agama yang dianut. Mereka yang berupaya menyelesaikan masalah di Bogor ini bisa mencontoh hubungan antaragama di masyarakat-masyarakat yang telah bisa meredam ketegangan agama.

Sebuah laporan penelitian 2011 bertajuk “Kontroversi Pendirian Gereja di Jakarta dan Sekitarnya” dirilis oleh tim peneliti dari Yayasan Paramadina, sebuah organisasi masyarakat sipil yang membidangi toleransi agama, serta beberapa LSM yang memiliki misi serupa. Penelitian ini mengungkap berbagai faktor yang mengakibatkan adanya hubungan antaragama yang konstruktif dan berbagai situasi di mana gereja berhasil mendapatkan izin pendirian. Cerita-cerita sukses – tentang 7 dari 13 kasus pendirian gereja yang diteliti – memperlihatkan bahwa ada tiga faktor penting agar jemaat gereja bisa membangun gereja tanpa merasa takut. Gereja-gereja, dan juga para tokoh agama dan politik, bisa belajar dari cerita-cerita sukses ini.

Faktor pertama adalah dukungan dari pemerintah setempat dan kepolisian. Mereka memiliki wewenang untuk menerima atau menolak pengajuan izin pendirian gereja dan menghentikan massa yang ingin mengganggu proses pembangunan gereja. Dalam kasus GKI Terang Hidup Jakarta misalnya, kepolisian setempat memfasilitasi dialog antara panitia pembangunan gereja dan kelompok-kelompok yang menentang pembangunan gereja tersebut. Kepolisian juga memberikan pengamanan dan menginformasikan masyarakat sekitar tentang proses ini.

Faktor kedua adalah dukungan dari tokoh agama setempat. Misalnya, dalam kasus gereja St. Mikael Bekasi, panitia pembangunan gereja mendekati seorang tokoh Muslim yang memiliki banyak pengikut di daerah itu. Pendekatan ini berhasil menciptakan hubungan baik dan mengubah sikap tokoh ini untuk mendukung pendirian gereja tersebut. 

Faktor ketiga adalah keberhasilan dialog dengan masyarakat Muslim di daerah sekitar untuk menghindari kesalahpahaman dan untuk menegaskan bahwa gereja tersebut tidaklah dibangun untuk memfasilitasi kristenisasi terhadap umat Muslim, tetapi untuk digunakan oleh anggota gereja saja. Semua gereja yang sukses didirikan yang diteliti bisa meyakinkan masyarakat sekitar bahwa pembangunan gereja tidak dimaksudkan untuk memurtadkan umat Muslim. 

Misalnya, ketika gereja St. Albertus Bekasi dibangun, panitia pembangunan gereja mengajak masyarakat sekitar, aparat pemerintah setempat dan kepolisian untuk mengadakan sejumlah dialog. Pendekatan yang berulang ini perlahan meyakinkan masyarakat sekitar untuk bisa mendukung pendirian gereja tersebut.

Ini adalah beberapa faktor penting untuk memelihara hubungan baik antara kelompok mayoritas agama dan kelompok minoritas – dan semestinya dipublikasikan secara lebih luas. Faktor-faktor ini bisa juga berlaku untuk kesuksesan pendirian masjid di daerah-daerah mayoritas Kristen.

Penting pula bagi panitia pembangunan untuk mengantisipasi respon dari organisasi keagamaan yang konservatif, yang dalam banyak kasus menolak pendirian gereja. Organisasi-organisasi ini, meski sedikit jumlahnya, terus menyuarakan sikap menentang di tempat-tempat tertentu dan memobilisasi warga untuk menentang gereja yang sedang dibangun – sering kali dengan cara-cara kekerasan.

Untungnya, organisasi-organisasi arus utama, seperti Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) dan sayap pemudanya, telah selalu mendukung hak untuk mendirikan tempat ibadah. Membangun gereja dengan dukungan cabang organisasi-organisasi ini biasanya menghalangi organisasi-organisasi radikal untuk menolak pembangunan gereja dengan kekerasan. Organisasi-organisasi arus utama ini seharusnya terus menuntut agar pemerintah daerah dan kepolisian menjamin hak untuk membangun tempat ibadah serta mengedukasi Muslim untuk secara aktif mendukung hak ini. 

Pemerintah pusat seharusnya belajar dari penelitian ini bagaimana meredakan konflik-konflik yang disebabkan oleh pembangunan gereja dan menggunakannya untuk menegakkan konstitusi, yang menjamin kebebasan beragama.

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* Testriono ialah peneliti di Pusat Pengkajian Islam dan Masyarakat Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, dan anggota redaksi jurnal Studia Islamika. 

Artikel ini ditulis untuk Kantor Berita Common Ground (CGNews).

Sumber: Kantor Berita Common Ground (CGNews), 10 Februari 2012, www.commongroundnews.org. 
Telah memperoleh izin publikasi.

New research may hold key to Indonesia’s church-building controversy

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=30973&lan=en&sp=0
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/columns/the-thinker-keys-to-the-church/496974
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2945&Itemid=403

by Testriono

07 February 2012


Jakarta - In Bogor, a city in Indonesia’s West Java province, the Presbyterian congregation GKI Yasmin has been prohibited by the local administration from holding services in their church for years. Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ruled that revoking the church’s permit is illegal. However, GKI Yasmin and many churches like it have not been protected from a small but vocal minority in Indonesia that has tried to prevent churches from receiving building and worship permits – and in some cases has even organised mobs to attack churches and congregants.

The case of GKI Yasmin is troubling, but is not representative of the status of all churches across the country. Throughout Indonesia, there are churches that successfully receive permits to build churches and whose congregants worship peacefully in religiously diverse neighbourhoods. Those working to resolve the problems in Bogor can look to the positive examples of interfaith relations in communities that have overcome religious tensions.

A 2011 research report entitled “The Controversy of Churches in Greater Jakarta” was developed by a team of researchers from Paramadina Foundation, a Muslim civil society organisation focused on religious tolerance, along with several civil society organisations with similar missions. It sheds some light on the factors that result in constructive interfaith relations and situations in which churches successfully receive permission to build. The success stories — half of the 13 church building cases studied — demonstrate that there are three factors crucial for congregations to be able to build churches without fear. Churches, as well as religious and political leaders, can learn from these stories.

The first factor is support from the local government and police. These groups have the power to accept or to reject building applications and to stop mobs who want to disrupt the construction process. In the case of the GKI Terang Hidup church in Jakarta, for example, the local police facilitated dialogue between the church building committee and the groups resisting the church’s construction. The police also provided security and informed the surrounding communities about the process.

The second factor is support from religious elites in the surrounding area. For example, in the case of the St. Mikael church in Bekasi, West Java, the church building committee approached a local Muslim leader with a strong popular base in the surrounding community. The approach initiated good relations and changed his attitude to support the establishment of the church.

The third factor is successful dialogue with the Muslim community in the area to avoid misunderstandings and to emphasise that the church is not being built to facilitate proselytising to Muslims, but for the use of church members. All the successfully established churches studied were able to convince their neighbourhood communities that church construction was not meant to enable conversion of Muslims. 

For instance, when the St. Albertus church in Bekasi, West Java was being constructed, the church building committee invited nearby communities, local government officials and police to a number of dialogues. This repetitive approach gradually convinced surrounding communities to support the establishment of the church.

These are key factors for preserving good relations between religious majority and minority groups – and should be publicised more widely. They can also apply to the successful establishment of mosques in Christian-majority communities.

It is also important for the committees to anticipate the responses of conservative Indonesian religious organisations, which in many cases have rejected the construction of churches. These organisations, though small in number, have consistently voiced their opposition in certain places and relied on mobilising community members in opposition to a church being built – often through violent means.

Fortunately, mainstream Muslim organisations such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) – the largest Muslim organisation in Indonesia – and its youth wing have always supported the right to establish houses of worship. Building a church with the support of the local branch of these organisations usually deters radical organisations from violently rejecting the church’s construction. These mainstream Muslim organisations should continue to demand that the local government and police guarantee the right to build houses of worship as well as to educate Muslims to actively support that right.

The central government should learn from this research how to mitigate conflicts caused by church construction and use them to uphold Indonesia’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom.

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* Testriono is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society at the State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta and Assistant Editor of its journal, Studia Islamika. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 7 February 2012, www.commongroundnews.org. Copyright permission is granted for publication.

How to worship without fear in Indonesia

Testriono, Jakarta | Wed, 01/18/2012 10:46 AM

Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/18/how-worship-without-fear-indonesia.html

Improving peaceful coexistence between majority and minority religious groups in contemporary Indonesia remains an uphill challenge for the country’s commitment to religious freedom. The role of the state is crucial in nurturing this relationship.

The ongoing obstruction of the establishment of the GKI Yasmin Church in Bogor, West Java, is a recent tangible example of the challenge.

Planned since 2001, GKI Yasmin obtained a building license from the local government in 2006. However, in 2008 the mayor of Bogor annulled the permit for unspecified reasons.

The State Administrative Court ruled in 2008 that the permit’s cancellation was illegitimate, a ruling that was sustained by the High Court of Appeal in 2009 and the Supreme Court in 2010.

The mayor persisted in enforcing the revocation, thus defying the court rulings. Sadly, the local police neither took action to execute the courts’ verdicts nor sought any means of stopping mobs from intimidating the church congregation.

Until today, the church remains off-limits under the mayor’s decree and as a result the congregation has to hold Sunday services on the street.

The case of the GKI Yasmin church reveals that the adversaries of religious tolerance are not just radical religious groups, but also local authorities.

First, local governments producing policies encouraging religious discrimination in their respective jurisdictions base these policies on sectarian political interests. Second, the local police choose to follow discriminatory policies rather than enforcing religious freedom, which is enshrined in the Constitution.

These circumstances are exacerbated by the reluctance of the central government to take any measures to stop the acts of intolerance. In fact, related to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution such as religious freedom, the central government has the authority to step in to ensure all citizens can exercise their rights.

Historically, conflicts between Muslim and Christian communities, which include violent attacks, building closures and restriction on the establishment of places of worship, are not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. During the New Order regime (1966-1998), as reported by the Indonesia Christian Communication Forum on Church and Human Rights in Indonesia 1998, there were at least 455 attacks on churches. The apostasy issue is the main trigger of these conflicts.

Unfortunately, as there was no effort to tackle the roots of the conflicts, these acts of violence continued in the post-1998 Reform era. Weak law enforcement contributed to Muslim-Christian conflicts, mainly in the form of attacks on churches. According to reports from the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH, 2005), the Indonesian Committee on Religion and Peace (2004), and the Indonesian Conference of Churches (KWI, 2007), at least 564 church attacks were reported between 1998 and 2007.

These conflicts are not a widespread trend in Indonesia. There is a tendency that they occur in large cities and in densely populated urban areas where there is a need to build houses of worship, which then sparks interreligious conflicts.

These conflicts also demonstrate a lack of harmony in majority-minority relations in Indonesia.

Around Jakarta, for instance, we can find many banners that express a local community’s rejection of a church construction. Danger is near if the local government responds to this kind of message with policies in favor of the protesters, as has been exemplified in the GKI Yasmin case.

On the other side, it is acknowledged that the church conflict is also related to the increase in conservatism among Indonesian Muslims, as characterized notably by the emergence of many radical Islamic organizations.

Though small in number, they have a loud voice in blocking church construction and provoking surrounding communities to support them. They become a serious threat if they use violent means and undemocratic ways to realize their aspirations.

A book titled Kontroversi Gereja di Jakarta (2001) gives some insight into church building problems. Based on 13 case studies of church construction in Greater Jakarta, one of which is GKI Yasmin, the book is a report conducted by a team from the Paramadina Foundation and some civil society organizations that promote pluralism. It explained the successes and failures of church establishments.

The research demonstrated that there are at least three important factors, called “unwritten rules”, which impact on the successful construction of churches. The first is the support of the local government and police. The second is the successful negotiation with religious elites in the surrounding area. And the last is the successful dialogue with the Muslim community in the area to avoid polemic and conflict by emphasizing that the church establishment does not hide a conversion agenda.

In the case of GKI Yasmin church, all the three factors are absent or inadequate.

Ideally, in a country where the Constitution guarantees the right of religious freedom, there should be no “unwritten rules” for minority groups to build their houses of worship. Instead, they should be able to worship without fear anywhere in Indonesia.

The writer is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) at the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. He is also an assistant to editor of the Studia Islamika Journal, which is published by the center.