The Jakarta Post, Fri, 04/03/2009 3:32 AM | National
Members of the Anti Buddha Bar Forum (FABB) have on Thursday pledged to stage a public protest if the Buddha Bar brand license is not recalled within the allotted 14-day period, tempointeraktif.com reported.
"The whole Indonesian Buddhist community will take this matter to the streets," FABB coordinator Ponijan Liaw said.
According to Directorate official Andi Someng, the Buddha Bar brand license was registered at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights Protection (Ditjen HAKI) of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry in January this year.
He said such licenses can be revoked anytime.
"Any brand license [previously approved] is revokable," Someng said, adding that the Directorate would summon the City Administration and bar owner so as to settle the controversy within the next two weeks.
"We will work within 14 days in accordance with what was decided in the meeting, hopefully this will be swiftly resolved," he said.
Meanwhile FABB lawyer Sunarjo Sumargono said Ditjen HAKI had previously admitted negligence in issuing the bar's brand license.
He argued that under the 1883 Paris Convention on industrial wealth, no brand can contain religious attributes or other elements that may disturb society.
"Indonesia, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), should therefore adhere to the Convention," Sumargono said.
Abbot Virya Dharma, secretary general of the Sangha Mahayana Indonesia, further argued that religion is not tradable nor be made into a business entity.
"This too runs counter to the 1945 Constitution in which Buddhism is also officially awknowledge as among the recognized state religions," Dharma said. (amr)
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