JAKARTA
-- On Dec. 2, Islamist groups organized the largest demonstration that
Indonesia has witnessed since the overthrow of President Suharto in 1998 to
urge the prosecution of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama -- popularly
known as Ahok -- for blasphemy after he allegedly misrepresented the Quran.
Approximately one million people weathered a monsoon
storm to participate peacefully in what was billed as a "Rally to Defend
Islam" as they held a huge outdoor Friday prayer congregation.
On Nov. 16, the governor was charged with criminal
defamation. He was interrogated and then released.
His questioning by police followed another large
demonstration on Nov. 4, which attracted 200,000 protesters who attempted to
storm the presidential palace gates before they were repelled by tear gas. One
died and more than 350 people were injured in that protest.
The controversy has dominated the election campaign for
the Jakarta governorship, the country's second most prominent profile elected
post. Ahead of the Feb. 15 polls. Purnama had earlier been considered the
front-runner. As the city's deputy governor, he inherited the post after the
previous governor, Joko Widodo, was elected Indonesian president in 2014.
The protests and public criticism of Purnama have been
fueled partly by the fact he is Christian in a country with the world's largest
Muslim population, and also ethnically Chinese. There is widespread resentment
that Indonesia's Chinese minority, which comprises less than 4% of the total
population, dominates the commercial and industrial sectors.
During the Dec. 2 protest, hundreds of thousands of
people lined the roads leading to the National Monument in central Jakarta,
praying on small rugs and sheets of newspaper in the pouring rain. In a
carefully choreographed show of solidarity, Widodo and his Vice President Jusuf
Kalla joined the prayers at the National Monument. Afterward, the president
offered a few words of appreciation that the rally had been peaceful, but was
met with chants demanding the imprisonment of Purnama.
The rallies against the governor have been largely
organized by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which is seen as a hardline
Muslim group headed by Grand Imam Habib Rizieq. The fact that the FPI has been
able to mount such huge demonstrations signifies the arrival of an
ultraconservative Islamic lobby on the political main stage.
The government and other Islamic organizations have been
divided over how to deal with the FPI and similar groups. Initially, the
authorities appeared opposed to the staging of the Dec. 2 rally, saying it
threatened government security following the violent protests in early
November. On one side, Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest independent Islamic
organization, advised its members not to participate in the rally and cited a
fatwa ruling that Friday prayers should not be conducted on the street.
But the Indonesian Ulama Council, one of the country's
most important Islamic organizations, undermined Nahdlatul Ulama's position by
deciding to support the rally and issuing its own fatwa condoning street
prayers. The council also helped negotiate with the police and army on
condition that the December rally be peacefully held.
Highlighting the anxiety of Widodo and the security services, 11 senior
political and military figures -- including Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, daughter
of Indonesia's first President Sukarno, and two prominent generals -- were
arrested on the morning of the rally on charges of treason, criminal conspiracy,
hate-speech, and allegedly insulting the president.
These arrests occurred after weeks of political drama, which had played
out on television and over social media as Widodo met with all major political
party chiefs to shore up political support. He had also discussed arrangements
to enable him to choreograph his dramatic and seemingly "spontaneous"
participation in the mass prayer congregation at the National Monument. The
urgent and alarmist tone of his negotiations with the FPI was reinforced by
both police and army chiefs who warned in a series of news conferences about a
plot to overthrow the government.
Delicate balancing act
The government had clearly tried to co-opt the rally organizers by
branding the event as a purely religious gathering and referring to it as a
"rally for peace." Simultaneous rallies were held in other major
cities, including Medan, Surabaya, Makassar and Solo.
Ultimately, the event could not hide growing anger among some Muslims
toward Purnama for allegedly misrepresenting Islamic scripture and toward the
political establishment in general. FPI leader Habib Rizieq told the crowd:
"Upholding justice for all religions in Indonesia should guarantee that
they must not be defamed."
The trigger for the current anger was Purnama's perceived blasphemy in a
speech earlier this year in which he urged a predominantly Muslim community
that they had the right to vote for him in the upcoming gubernatorial election,
telling them not to be "fooled" by people misrepresenting specific
verses of the Quran. His controversial statements were captured on video and
went viral in Indonesia's turbulent social media.
One FPI supporter who works at the education ministry told the Nikkei
Asian Review during the rally: "If Ahok is not prosecuted, it will be
war." In such circumstances, he warned, the Chinese could become the next
targets for popular ire.
The latest rally shows that Widodo's government and Indonesia's
political establishment is being put on notice by the conservative Islamic
lobby, with reminders that it can wield considerable political influence based
on popular appeal.
A leader of a Sulawesi-based Islamist group said: "If six million
of us wanted to storm the presidential palace we could. But that's not in our
teaching. Think about it, how many soldiers are there -- even if a few of us
were shot." Other groups talked about holding more rallies and said that
if their demands were not met, then they expected a fatwa to be issued calling
for jihad.
The blasphemy controversy reflects deep-seated grievances about economic
inequality between the Chinese minority and Indonesia's vast Muslim majority
populations. This attitude is reflected in a recent comment by Said Aqil
Siradj, chairman of Nahlatul Ulama, who said that "Ahok's statements are
offensive, regardless of whether he is convicted of defamation or not, because
the statement is offensive to Muslim people. What's more, the person saying it
is not Muslim... moreover, [he's] Chinese."
JAMES BEAN and ANDRE BARAHAMIN, Contributing writers
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