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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian Islamists force removal of popular statue |
| 2010-06-21 |
| Residents of Kota Harapan Indah housing area, Bekasi, have blasted the local administration's decision to dismantle the Tiga Mojang (Three Ladies) statue from their area after pressure from fundamentalist groups. On Saturday, the Bekasi municipal administration decided to tear down a 17-meter-high Tiga Mojang statue, made by sculptor Nyoman Nuarta, from the entrance of Kota Harapan Indah, following protests from local hard-line Islamic groups. Asep, 20, a resident of the complex, said, after the statue had been removed on Saturday morning, he now felt differently about boulevard where the statue once stood. “I often spent Saturday nights with my friends, sitting and chatting on the sidewalk and we were always awed by the beautiful statue,' Asep told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “But since it was removed, we felt that we were hanging out in an entirely different place.' A resident speaking on the condition of anonymity said he disagreed with the administration's decision to tear down the statue, considering the fact that it was made under pressure from hard-line Islamic groups. “A work of art is supposed to be enjoyed. There is no point in reducing it to a religious issue,' he said. Among the groups calling for the removal of the statue are the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), the Bekasi Movement Against Apostates and the Islamic Ummah Forum. The groups said the Rp 5 billion (US$550,000) statue, which portrays three women dressed in traditional West Javanese attire, was an insult to the Muslim-majority city since it symbolized attempts to convert people to Christianity. “We are happy to hear the Bekasi administration has finally dismantled the statue. If they hadn't done it, we would have taken matters into our own hands and taken the statue down ourselves,' Murhali Barda, the head of the Bekasi branch of the FPI, said Sunday. The developers of Kota Harapan Indah, however, said they had no plans to bring the Bekasi municipal administration to court. “We know the [Bekasi] mayor was under pressure from the Islamic groups. It would be difficult hard to reverse the decision even if we went ahead and sued him,' PT Hasana Damai Putra operational director Fredy Yanto told the Post. Fredy also denied allegations that the statue was obscene and was offensive to Muslims in Bekasi. “The statue was meant to welcome people to the complex, just like other monuments built in many other cities,' he said. In an interview with the Post on Sunday, the sculptor, Nyoman Nuarta, called the groups' interpretation of the statue silly and utterly misleading. “I made the statue after learning more about [West Java] culture. I never thought about attaching any religious aspect to it. I don't even understand what the Trinity is,' Bandung-based Nyoman said via telephone. “Why did I choose three [ladies]? It was simply because the statue would be placed in the center of a traffic circle so that it could ‘welcome' motorists from three streets.' |
| Posted by:ryuge |