The Jakarta Post
In the next few weeks, Indonesia’s liberal-minded middle class will possibly get what they have always wanted: the end of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).
This is because by the end of this month at the latest, the House of Representatives will pass into law a bill that, if enacted, will allow the government to freeze or dissolve an organization for operating against the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. The Mass Organizations Bill will replace the 1985 law of the same name, which Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi once said had prevented him from taking swift action on “violent groups”.
This is almost like a dream come true.
The FPI has long been accused of acting against everything Pancasila stands for. The group is violent — at least it used to be, according to our records — and definitely has trouble coexisting with people who disagree with them, especially the educated middle class who may not like Lady Gaga but want to know the country is open to all foreign performers, no matter how controversial they are.
sounds nearly too good to be true, let’s wait and see.