Bekasi Bigots
Feb 21st, 2010, in Opinion, by Ross
Sectarian mapping of cities to prevent conflict, as another church, in Bekasi, is closed.
BEKASI BIGOTS RIDING HIGH
Having lived in Bekasi, West Java some years ago, the Jakarta Post article about ‘religious mapping‘ holds interest. The very idea that you need to map an area to provide for peaceful sectarian co-existence, never mind integration, sums up what is wrong with Indonesia. It can be better summarised in two words: Muslim clerics, as in this story of protests against the construction of a Protestant church in Bekasi recently:
Rusli, 38, a moderate Muslim, was in a quandary when local clerics recently asked him and other residents to sign a petition against the building of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP)) church in their neighborhood in Jejalen Jaya.
The clerics said that if we didn’t sign, they wouldn’t recite prayers at our funerals. I insisted on not signing it, but most of my neighbors were cowed by the threat.
With local clerics still playing a pivotal leadership role in rural parts of Bekasi, people in the Muslim-majority region are easily dragged into conflicts sparked by religious tensions. The spat between the HKBP and the Jejalen Jaya residents only escalated once Muslim clerics in the subdistrict began inciting opposition to the construction of the church.
All Muslim clerics in this subdistrict have agreed the construction of the church must desist immediately
says protest leader Nesan.
So what’s their problem? Murhali, Bekasi FPI leader said on TVone on Sunday that there were 6 churches in the area.
At night, their singing disturbs the locals’ sleep
They can hardly be serious in saying that church-bells and hymn-singing ‘disturb’ Muslim residents, since their own mosques emit cacaphonous ululations again and again every day, not least when normal folk are abed and asleep.
Bekasi ’45 Islamic University sociologist Andi Sopandi points out such faith-fomented conflicts are to be expected. Such disputes, he says, occur frequently in developing rural or suburban areas across the country, where the influx of newcomers with a more diverse background has grated on traditionally more homogeneous communities.
Locals and newcomers get along well only if they share similar basic values, and for most Indonesians, that would be religion
says Andi, who advised former vice president Jusuf Kalla during the latter’s mediation to end the deadly inter-religious clashes in Poso, Central Sulawesi. Given the situation, he goes on, the establishment of an interfaith communication forum alone is never enough.
True enough, Andi, but what is to be done?
Andi believes it is paramount for all regional administrations in the country, including in Bekasi, to produce a map, updated each year, that shows the spread of religious clusters in the area.
The map shouldn’t just list the populations of each religion, but should also point out their homes and nearest houses of worship. Using such a map, the local administration can work with its Interfaith Communication Forum to allow for houses of worship to be established where the population of any particular religious group is high.
It might, one would think, be easier just to let people build a church, or temple, or mosque, subject to parking needs etc., and allow for freedom of religion to proceed, but not here. The ignorant savages who hold court in the mosques direct their flock to hound anybody who doesn’t share their beliefs.
Why, we have to ask again? And it does seem to come back to the paranoid fear among these clerics that their flock will jump ship. Repeatedly, we hear the horrified fanatics speaking of ‘conversion’. Sometimes they use the term ‘Christianisation‘ of areas, as if there’s some Rome-directed plot to flood Bekasi with Catholics or perhaps American evangelists are master-minding wholesale Protestant indoctrination of the Bekasi masses. No wonder Islamic spokesmen often prescribe the death penalty for anyone who converts out.
Are rank-and-file Muslims truly so weak in their faith that only such barbaric threats keep them bending the knee to bearded ignoramuses? I doubt it. Most people need a pretty heavy reason to change the religion they were born into.
The menace of proselytisation was also the excuse in last week’s report from Taman Galaxy, which is a nice little housing estate there where I occasionally did some work about seven years back. Everybody seemed civil enough, no signs of irrationality, at least no more than usual. But this year, we have 16 Islamist outfits up in arms because Galilea Church has a little Sunday fair.
One Murhali said that there were allegations that the church was carrying out a mission to convert residents.
We received reports that church officials often held a charity bazaar for locals but they were asked to say that Jesus is their God. I think it’s a violation.
Sounds unlikely, but what the heck, even if they were asked, they can ‘just say no’, nobody forced them to go there, and given Islam’s record of forcible conversion, a charity bazaar is pea-nuts.
I’m sure Andi Sopandi is a well-meaning man, but maps will only show that non-Muslims are in a minority just about everywhere in Bekasi and in Jakarta. The kind of bigoted clerics we’re talking about here don’t care at all if it’s 2% or 20% – backed up by the kind of Islamist zealots who run the political show in Bekasi, they want to stamp out any alternative source of spiritual guidance that might seem preferable to their own unpleasant brand.
196 Comments on “Bekasi Bigots”
-
Just answer the question – if only for the other readers. You said yourself it was a reasonable question. 🙂
-
Oigal says:
You said yourself it was a reasonable question
Stop acting such shallow sanctimonious twat
Still cannot read little one, I said I don’t mind answering questions. The nonsense you are spouting is looking for a nasty little wordbite not a question. Of course, if that means you riding on the misfortune of others to get reaction, oh well its all good fun isn’t it.Besides the question is nonsense in itself. Any reasonable person would know that even taking the racist assumption nonsense question and re-phrasing it into something viable, the answer would take endlessly more space than is available here.
Do the world and your family a favour and ….Grow up Idiot, -
So Oigal,
I ask a question you don’t like, and I am a twat (slang for vagina).
I also ever ask you why you think the aboriginal community is poorer than the rest of Australia and you say it is rasis (racist).
Very interesting response, Oigal. You presented yourself as ‘someone who’d worked with aboriginal communities.’ A reader (me) challenges you – not on your credentials – but on your knowledge and your response is to call the reader 1) a twat and 2) a racist.
Like I said, regardless of how you feel about me, if you know anything about bigotry and oppressed communities, perhaps you can explain the source of poverty and or oppression amongst the Australian aboriginal communities. If you can’t we must conclude you are, Oigal,..
A fraud.
-
It’s a sad troll that needs to continually misquoting me. I said I have worked with Aborginals. Here’s tip, not all Aborginals live on community stations, not all are poor (oh my!) not all fit the racist little ideas you have. Must be pain when a people don’t fit your sad little box you have built for them. Difficult concepts I know.
As for how I feel about you, worthless fraudlent worm springs to mind but I do try and look for the best in everyone.
Your ever evolving question is not that but rather a title for a tome of research that is beyond the space here and certainly beyond the understanding of the sponsored corrupt one like yourself.
For anyone else who is interested you want to try google Noel Pearson as a start point.
-
Fraud.
-
Not that you matter, my boss and instructor/teacher for for the first seven years of my working life was Aborginal and that our idiot parasite ends the discussion. You shall hence forth be ignored unless you wish to make it up close and personal.
-
That’s what you say, Fraud. I’m still interested to hear why the aboriginal community lags behind the rest of the country in terms of living standards. It’s ok to be a Fraudy-Fraud, at least we know now.
-
Mr. Oigal,
Maybe you ever like to look at this clip of your Sydney 2000 Olympik:
-
Ross says:
Okay, Oigal, I see we have Achmad back in the fray, but let’s continue regardless.
I mentioned Redfern because many Aussies won’t go by there after dark.
That is not saying all Abos are the same, far from it, but it is saying that the condition of your ‘native Australians’ (as much a nonsense as equating Red Indians with ‘native Canadians,’ when my kin were born and bred there and are not redskins) may not be notably better than in the 50s, and certainly not happier, given how they are used as a political plaything and patronised at the sort of ceremony I attended a year ago, nothing to do with Abos or history, but some poor half-caste dragged in to say how kind it was of his tribe to ‘lend’ whitey the land on which somebody else’s property now stands.
It was gibberish and the guy was hardly a blackfellow, looked more like a Spaniard!Aussies are caught in a vortex of self-repudiation, which is fine if they enjoy it, but until the Rudds and the rest hand over their personal homes and gardens to a passing Aborigine, it’s arrant hypocrisy. Oya, I use Abo for Aborigines as I use Brits for British. What’s in a name?
As for your Antipodean Republic, that’s up to citizens, though I hope they reject such a boring concept…but the flag is beautiful and shows every generation where Australia got its heritage. To raise it alongside that awful Abo banner is just bad taste.
This is quite an agreeable ramble round various subjects, so I’ll break for dinner.
-
Ross,
Try going to Redfern and start randomly calling Aboriginals (Kooris) ‘Abos’ or ‘Bungs’ and see what happens.
-
timdog says:
Dikkiman, I wish you would put your peci and glasses back on, it’s distracting having you like this.
Otherwise I am muchly enjoying watching (though I do sort of wish someone – probably someone other than the current combatants – had picked up and run with the rich Christians, reasons why, and quick Bethany reference back on page two, but never mind).
As I am not Australian (and I suspect, neither is Dikkiman. There’s something very British about goading Aussies on the Aborigine issue) I will keep out of it, though I know who gets my vote…
-
Achmad, the problem in Redfern is not that people go there to upset residents. People are just loath to go there. Why? (Glad to see you have regained your command of the English language)
Oigal, while I digest my dinner -AN was granted citizenship in the 50s? So that category of ‘discrimination’ was not race-based?
C’mon, Timdog, join in -all the usual crowd are here!
-
Mr. Rosses,
I just said try going to Redfern and start calling Aboriginal people boongs, abos, coons, then say to them, “hey, what’s in a name.” Just try !
-
madrotter says:
would love to jump in myself but this is not a subject i’m familiar with… got this book lying around, supposed to be an australian classic, poor fellow, my country by xavier herbert, maybe i should start with it one of these days…
-
Mr. Madrotters,
Yes, this is ever supposed to be a thread about Bekasi. That said, they say it’s a good one. 🙂
-
Ya, Achmad, you said that already, and I made the point that most sensible people don’t go there.
I wouldn’t go round Brixton or the Bronx at night calling people anything, because again they are not areas to walk around at night if you’re not familiar with the residents.
-
You’re the one that said, ‘what’s in a name,’ Cracker. Try using those terms towards any aboriginal and see the reaction. I won’t get into the lengthy discussion of how words can be used as weapons because I’m sure you’re aware of it. As a humble Betawi Bongo player, I stil have a way to go.
-
personally, i’m not sure how an aboriginal from bekasi would react to the word abo
-
Most Southern and several Northern Irishmen I know get called Paddy often and don’t reach for their shillelaghs. It’s a matter of being grown up enough to take a bit of stick.
This whole PC aggro against ethnic epithets is pathetic and merits a thread all to itself, but I think we’ve had one or more on us honkies getting called bule here.Oigal, if we can recap momentarily, let’s look at a country I am more familiar with than Aussie, (though I am quite familiar with it too) and see what all this trendy stuff has done for the Indians.
Canada had a lot of progress over the past century bringing them into the mainstream – we liked the local Indians and were very proud when they marched with us on the Twelfth of July.
But take a gander at Ontario today and they are now claiming free-loaders’ rights to vast areas which are the legitimate property of both public and private owners.
The OPP have become a politically controlled police force, gutless and unwilling to enforce the law equally, to the detriment of non-Indian citizens.
There are all kinds of jobs for which Indian ethnicity is a necessary qualification, blatant racism against British, French or any other kind of Canadian (except maybe Eskimos, and we aren’t supposed to call them that anymore either – ludicrous!)
If you’re saying that Aborigines (there, I’m playing nice now) should be able to compete for jobs and votes like my kin in Oz, okay, but this dreadful sycophantic obeisance to them is not progress. No way is it a healthier society than the 50s. -
Hey Timdog,
As I am not Australian (and I suspect, neither is Dikkiman).
It is not even close, a grade seven school kid has more knowledge about Australia, people and history than this twit. I suspect a Kiwi but don’t wish to offend some of those Kiwis are good people as opposed to…
The problem with have Assmad/Dikki pretending to represent anyone is the troll is pig ignorant of anything approaching facts. Which whilst cute for him, is really more patronsing and arrogant than any over racist statement.
Try going to Redfern and start randomly calling Aboriginals (Kooris)
Is a Assmad classic piece of fraudlent nonsense, Aborginals are not Kooris. Koori refers to a particlular group of Aboriginal People who come from a limited geographical region of Australia (SEA) Makes about as much sense as calling a Mexican a New Yorker. Try calling a Torres Strait Islander or Central Region Aborginal a Koori and see how far you get.
Of course, this is just a long list in pig ignorance from the idiot, no clue about Wave Hill, probably the most pivitol moment in modern Aborginal History etc etc. I would go on about his sheer inability to spell people or place names correctly but thats too easy.
Frankly, the guy is a uninformed idiot of the highest order and doesn’t even make a good troll.
Ross, We are talking about the society being better or worse in 50s. I don’t think one Prime Minister in one term is the decider.
AN was granted citizenship in the 50s? So that category of ‘discrimination’ was not race-based?
Of course, it was. If fact, it displayed the very ugliest side of the system. AN was “deemed” acceptable by those that be as a citizen whilst Aborginals as a race where denied.
-
I won’t get into the lengthy discussion of how words can be used as weapons
Then it would be idiotic to take the high ground when you have no idea of the meanings of the words you try and impress the bored with…Koori…indeed..idiot!!!!
-
Cukurungan says:
Here’s tip, not all Aborginals live on community stations, not all are poor (oh my!) not all fit the racist little ideas you have. Must be pain when a people don’t fit your sad little box you have built for them. Difficult concepts I know.
Pak Oigal Yth,
I am just little bit wondering why your kind dare to have a big mouth about human right in here especially toward Papuans while we have already Papuans Governor, Papuans Major and even Papuans Minister but we never seen any aboriginal having prominent position on the Auusi Government, could you please explain why like that?
Or should we send Indonesia Law maker to teach Australian about Pancasila and UUD 45.regards.
-
Yes, Fraudgal,
You claim to be very knowledgeable about the Aborigin – but why is he mostly poorer than the Nutri-gain eating everyday White Aussie ?
-
ET says:
Cukurungan said
I am just little bit wondering why your kind dare to have a big mouth about human right in here especially toward Papuans while we have already Papuans Governor, Papuans Major and even Papuans Minister but we never seen any aboriginal having prominent position on the Auusi Government, could you please explain why like that?
Is this a confession that the Papuans also have been occupied and colonized by the present rulers?
-
This is just grand, and we haven’t even reached the status of women yet!
Dinner-time. Back later. -
Aaahm, rendang tonight. Fortifies one for this sort of thing.
Perhaps I’m confused. Was AN an Aborigine or not? Frankly, I had never heard of him until Oigal mentioned him.
Society in Anglo-Saxon countries is surely worse for most people than in the Fifties.
Standards of living in materail terms have risen for almost everybody, but what good is a full gut and a lot of electrical gadgets if your gran is afraid to go out for a walk after dark, and your kiddies have to be watched over all the time..and when they can’t watch tv without being indoctrinated into thinking the foulest language is quite proper talk?
Assaults on Uk teachers have sky-rocketed, while teachers can’t punish young louts, not does the state, preferring to let the killers of Jamie Bulger out after a ludicrous sentence..and there was a similar case recently, again in Britain, where two mini-satans got an offensively light sentence for a very grave offence.
What about cultural standards, with charlatans getting huge rewards by museums funded by us mugs for exhibiting dead animals as sculpture..or when the civilsation that produced Beethoven (and the Beatles) has the nerve to call hip-hop or gangsta rap ‘music?’
Same goes for the daubs that constitute ‘modern art,’ compared to the greats of our European civilisation.And I haven’t yet touched on the cult of mediocrity which has spawned a semi-literate nation – send ’em all to uni, which reduces unis to the level of a large comprehensive secondary!
And they can hardly parse a sentence. (or even know what parsing means!)This litany of decadence could be discussed endlessly – and probably will be if I know IM .
-
Is this a confession that the Papuans also have been occupied and colonized by the present rulers?
Fortunately the present rulers is Papuans them self while we non-Papuan is only guarding from the safe distance just in case our Papuan brother being spotted and preyed by the white predator
-
Mr. Ross,
Wouldn’t bother with Albert NamatJIRA. Unthreatening, water colour landscapes that make pleasant place mats and pleasant, if forgettable decorations. They look good with your Auntie May’s doilies. Australians just get all gushy when an Aboriginal stays sober, or competently mimics White culture, thus lowering the bar. He wasn’t no David Gulpilil or Ernie Dingo. I must admit, though, I heard Oigal saying ‘worked with’ Aboriginals, I thought he meant let them do his crude manual labor or tend to his sheep.
Comment on “Bekasi Bigots”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2025
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
Ah Idiot Troll,
Fact is, his name has been spelt the same way since 1905 when he was registered with the Church. Only a pig ignorant and arrogant spoilt sponsored trough feeder as yourself would presume to imply the man has spelt his own name wrong on untold thousands of pieces of art, he himself signed. Then again you have never had much respect for those unable to defend themselves have you.
I love questions its all a matter of credibility really and you are not a nodding terms with the word. Tell you what, learn some history, how to spell place names and peoples names and I will get back to you.
I do find it amusing that someone spent so much on educating someone like you only to have it returned in such ignorant and shallow manner. No wonder you have decided to slither over here as the plaything of the graspers. Must be huge disappointment to someone tho.