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Jakarta. A coalition of religious figures has vowed to remain critical of the government’s failings, following a meeting on Monday night with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The group sparked an angry backlash from senior cabinet ministers last week when it accused the Yudhoyono administration of lying to the Indonesian people and failing to carry out its mandate.

Monday’s gathering was called by the president to “reduce misunderstandings” over the issue, but on Tuesday the group said it was still concerned about several government failures, including note keeping vows to alleviate poverty and eradicate corruption.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-biggest Islamic organization, said that despite the “positive, warm and open” dialogue with the president, the group would not stop criticizing the shortcomings.

“We appreciate the government’s goodwill, but we’ll wait for the realization [of that goodwill] on the ground,” he said.

“We religious figures [in the group] are independent, and fear only our respective gods. We won’t be influenced at all [by Monday’s meeting].”

Din added the movement was not a political one and denied it was aimed ultimately at getting Yudhoyono impeached.

“We don’t approve of ... toppling the government,” he said. “The movement was never intended for that.”

Benny Susetyo, from the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), also a member of the religious coalition, said the group was compiling data by which to assess the government’s performance in various areas.

“We’re preparing data and agendas for improvements,” he said.

Benny identified issues of particular interest to the group as the case of rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan, the Bank Century bailout, the Lapindo mudflow disaster and the spate of attacks by Islamic hard-liners against minority religious groups.

Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said there would be more meetings between the government and religious figures in the future.

Djoko, who was widely lambasted for saying the claims that the government had lied were “going too far,” said the government welcomed deeper discussions on key issues and encouraged religious figures to bring their cases to the relevant ministries.

“The government took note of all the criticisms conveyed by the religious figures,” he said.

“We agreed that [Monday’s] meeting was just a preliminary, opening meeting.”

Din said that at least one minister during the meeting had raised objections to the group’s accusations of dishonesty.

But the Muhammadiyah chairman responded by clarifying that what the religious figures meant by “lying” was “the discrepancy between the government’s words and actions.”

“If [the government] doesn’t like the term, then that’s fine,” Din said.

“The most important thing is for them to pay attention to the substance [of the claims].”

On Monday, the group released a joint statement at the Maarif Institute highlighting the government’s failures, in particular its inaction on opposing and preventing attacks against minority religions and protect freedom of speech and of the press.

The group also said the law under the current government “is defeated by power and money” and also criticized the discrepancy between the country’s strong economic growth and the weak distribution of wealth among the poor.

The government has also failed to address major rights violations, including against Indonesian migrant workers abused by their overseas employers, the group alleged.