JAKARTA. The upcoming Christmas will provide an opportunity for the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to make good on its campaign promise to unconditionally uphold religious freedom in the country as beleaguered congregations hope to finally hold Christmas services in their sealed church buildings after years of on-street celebrations.

Marking their 79th on-street Sunday service on Sunday, four days before Christmas, members of the Bogor-based Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin and the Bekasi-based congregation of the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) Filadelfia of West Java, patiently waited outside the Presidential Palace after their service until evening in the of hope of personally meeting President Jokowi, who is widely regarded as a pluralist, in order to give him first-hand accounts of the discrimination they have been suffering.

“We have high hopes for Pak Jokowi. We want to explain the matter directly to him because we are worried that the issue will be distorted by various interests,” GKI Yasmin spokesperson Bona Sigalingging told The Jakarta Post.

“There was no progress on GKI Yasmin’s case in particular during the leadership of former president SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] because the then president gave no clear and strict instructions to related ministries or the Bogor administration to comply with the rulings by the Supreme Court and the Ombudsman. Thus, we really hope that Pak Jokowi will be different,” Bona added.

In 2008, the Supreme Court rejected a request from the Bogor City Planning and Parks Agency to revoke GKI Yasmin’s building permit (IMB) issued that year.

The court upheld the ruling two years later but then Bogor mayor Diani Budiarto eventually revoked the permit despite his promise to comply with it.

Later in 2011, the Ombudsman issued a recommendation stipulating that Diani had violated the law by his insistence on sealing the church and required him to immediately revoke the decree that led to the sealing of the building.

However, nothing has been done until now, even after Bogor elected new Mayor Bima Arya, who is known as a more progressive leader, after Diani’s term of office expired this year.

Like members of GKI Yasmin, the congregation of HKBP Filadelfia have also been evicted from their church in Bekasi due to the same permit issue.

Members of the two congregations have jointly held the open-air Sunday services across from the Presidential Palace to protest the discrimination suffered by them.

Like members of other minority groups that have suffered discrimination in the country, members of GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia applauded the inauguration of President Jokowi hoping that he would put an end to all such discrimination in the country.

However, six Sundays after Jokowi’s inauguration on Oct. 21, the President, who often conducts blusukan (impromptu visits) throughout the archipelago to personally inspect matters on the ground, has yet to approach GKI Yasmin or HKBP Filadelfia, despite them holding their services just across from his office.

Bona said that both congregations had sent official letters to Jokowi to request a meeting that hopefully would allow the parishioners to gain access to the churches on Christmas.

According to Bona, GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia had also sent a copy of the letters to Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto and State Secretary Pratikno.

While Andi could not be reached for confirmation, Pratikno simply said “I don’t remember” in a text message in response to the Post’s questions on the matter.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno said he had no information whether or not Jokowi had a plan to receive and have a dialogue with GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia.

“Ask the President, I do not monitor [the issue], nor receive such information,” Tedjo said.(Margareth S. Aritonang and Ina Parlina)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie