Muslim student activists take part in an anti-government rally in Jakarta on July 12, 2017, after President Joko Widodo signed a new law to disband Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)
The government has issued a decree allowing it to ban groups that oppose the official state ideology, in a move seen to target radical Islamists in the country.
The law, signed by President Joko Widodo on Monday, comes as concerns grow about the influence of hardliners, where a majority of the population practice a moderate form of Islam.
It empowers the government to disbandwithout trial any group that challenges Pancasila which promotes pluralism and tolerance.
Pancasila is considered the unifying factor for a country home to significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities.
Chief Security Minister Wiranto said Wednesday the move was taken because some groups were "threatening the nation's existence and creating conflict in the society".
Neither Wiranto nor the decree name specific organizations.
But activists said the move is aimed to disband Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), the local branch of a radical Islamist group that seeks to unify all Muslims into a caliphate.
The government said in May it wanted to take legal steps to dissolve the group.
This decree is merely a shortcut to disband HTI because if they use the old NGO law, its going totake a long time, legal expert Bivitri Susanti told AFP.
Mass organizations spreading ideologies such as atheism and communism are also banned under the decree.
Rights activists warned that the decree could stifle a broad range of democratic institutions.
"Banning any organization strictly on ideological grounds, including Pancasila, is a draconian action that undermines rights of freedom of association and expression," Andreas Harsono, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Jakarta, told AFP.
Asfinawati, the head of Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation, said the move is "a setback of Indonesia's democracy".
Wiranto denied that the decree aims to muffle NGOs.
Agence France-Presse
(brl/red)
