Siswanto, Welly Hidayat – Islamic demonstrators have protested against the 3rd Asean Literary Festival (ALF) 2016 which is to be held today Thursday May 5 at the Ismail Marzuki Cultural Centre in Central Jakarta.
The event, which is planned to go through until Sunday May 8, is being protested because it allegedly supports the spread of communist, Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights and is promoting the disintegration of Papua.
“The organisers of the 3rd ALF 2016 who [claim] to be acting on behalf of freedom of expression, justice and humanity are just using this as a cover”, said Sahril Hasibuan, the coordinator of the group calling itself the Muslim Student and Social Alliance (AM3).
This suspicion is based on the series of activities that make up the agenda of the ALF. Hasibuan, who is demanding that the AFL be closed down, also called for the Papuan people to unite under the framework of the NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia).
He also asked that the spread of ideas justifying LGBT be ended because it is not in accordance with the human character and culture of Indonesia.
Following mediations with police, the demonstration by the AM3 was halted. However they threatened that more demonstrators would return if the event continued the following day.
According the schedule of events received by Suara.com for the first day of the ALF, there will be a translation activity by writer Anton Kurnia followed by a workshop from literary works to music by Ananda Sukarlan. In the evening the main event will be opened by former East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta followed by a performance by the Korean Orchestra and the Modern Puppet Show.
[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was Massa Demo Tuntut Bubarkan The 3rd Asean Literary Festival di TIM.]
