The Jakarta Post | Thu, 07/07/2011 3:00 PM |
Panca Nugraha
The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) provincial administration will conduct six months of “preaching” and “empowerment” programs to introduce a group of Ahmadiyah refugees into the community, an official says.
“We started to do so two weeks ago,” NTB National Unity and Home Affairs Agency head Ridwan Hidayat told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Ridwan said that NTB Governor Zainul Majdi would not issue a decree banning the minority Islamic group, as was requested by local community and religious leaders, on fears it would be ineffective.
Twenty-four religious teachers and clerics would preach and meet twice a week with the Ahmadi refugee community living at the Wisma Transito evacuation center in Mataram, the provincial capital.
The preaching would continue for six months and would use the so-called dakwah bil hal approach, which emphasizes action in addition to sermons, he said.
The Ahmadi refugees would also be given classes on life skills topics such as starting a home industry business, and would be given start-up capital, he added.
The provincial administration was coordinating with the West Lombok regency administration to compensate the Ahmadis for their assets in Ketapang.
Thirty-four of 137 Ahmadi families have lived at Wisma Transito after they were evicted from their homes in Ketapang in February 2006.
Once the compensation payments were complete and the preaching and empowerment programs were successful then the Ahmadis would be able to find their own places outside the refuge building, settle down and mingle with the community in their respective neighborhoods, he said.
“The expectation is that they will no longer live collectively and exclusively among themselves but mingle with other communities. Based on our analysis, violence against Ahmadis [in NTB] mostly was triggered by their separatist way of living,” Ridwan said.
A spokesman for the refugees, Syahidin, said he welcomed the administration’s plan, adding that he hoped the administration would also act quickly to resolve their citizenship status and situation as refugees.
Syahidin said that the refugees had not been able to receive aid as the victims of a social conflict since 2008.
Many of the refugees’ ID cards had expired and could not be replaced as the refugees’ applications for new cards were turned down by the West Lombok regency, the Mataram municipality and the NTB provincial administrations.
“This has made it difficult for us to access healthcare and education for our children. Please give us our ID cards and acknowledge us as Indonesian citizens,” Syahidin said.
Most of the refugees currently make a living by selling snacks, working as ojek motorcycle taxi drivers or as manual laborers on construction sites.
The refugees also wanted the administration pay compensation for their lost property in Ketapang as soon as possible so they could start life outside the refugee camp, he said.
— JP
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