The biggest political story in Indonesia towards the end of 2016 and moving forward into 2017 is the blasphemy case against the current Governor of Jakarta, the ethnic Chinese politician popularly as “Ahok “. It has become apparent that his political opponents in the Jakarta gubernatorial election and their supporters have funded a campaign by Islamic hardliners, such as the Islamic Defenders Front, to twice take to the streets of Jakarta demanding Ahok be immediately arrested and imprisoned for misquoting the Koran for his own political gain.
The well-funded movement of hard-line Islamic protesters from all over Java and even Sumatra to Jakarta was facilitated with military precision to ensure that over 200.000 protesters attended both rallies.
While most legal experts believe that Ahok does not have a case to answer based on the fact that his so-called blasphemous comments that set the whole chain of events in motion were heavily edited to exclude the overall context of the utterances and then uploaded to social media by the perpetrator in a video that then went viral. The perpetrator of this misinformation is also now in police custody and is facing criminal charges for inciting public disorder.
Despite being perceived as having no case to answer, both the police and the justice system have decided under the intense pressure of the two huge rallies that Ahok does have a case to answer and will have to see his day in court.
In the meantime, a group of over a dozen public figures, including Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, the younger sister of Megawati Sukarnoputri, have also been arrested and are under investigation for allegedly using the mass protests as a vehicle to overthrow the popularly elected President, Joko Widodo.
As Ahok went to pains to point out on the first day of his blasphemy trial, the charges against him are all politically motivated and designed to ensure that he is not re-elected is the Governor of Jakarta next February.
The eyes of the world are focussed on this trial which is a test of the Indonesian legal system’s integrity and its ability to decide cases based on law and not on pressure brought to bear by hard-line Islamists and their “rent-a-crowd” followers.
To an outsider, what seems strange is that in a country of over 220 million Muslims, there is any need for an organisation such as Islamic Defenders Front. It is not as if the Islam is under threat from the Christians, Hindus and Buddhists that collectively only make up 13% of the total population. What clearly needs to be defended is Indonesia’s fledgling democracy which is the real focus of the recent anti-Ahok protest rallies.
If the defenders of democracy or Pancasila took to the streets in organised rallies across the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, they would clearly demonstrate that the forces of hard-line Islam are in the minority across the entire nation.
ResourcefulIndonesian.com will be following this case with interest on the new “Forum Pembela Pancasila” page of the website.
The well-funded movement of hard-line Islamic protesters from all over Java and even Sumatra to Jakarta was facilitated with military precision to ensure that over 200.000 protesters attended both rallies.
While most legal experts believe that Ahok does not have a case to answer based on the fact that his so-called blasphemous comments that set the whole chain of events in motion were heavily edited to exclude the overall context of the utterances and then uploaded to social media by the perpetrator in a video that then went viral. The perpetrator of this misinformation is also now in police custody and is facing criminal charges for inciting public disorder.
Despite being perceived as having no case to answer, both the police and the justice system have decided under the intense pressure of the two huge rallies that Ahok does have a case to answer and will have to see his day in court.
In the meantime, a group of over a dozen public figures, including Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, the younger sister of Megawati Sukarnoputri, have also been arrested and are under investigation for allegedly using the mass protests as a vehicle to overthrow the popularly elected President, Joko Widodo.
As Ahok went to pains to point out on the first day of his blasphemy trial, the charges against him are all politically motivated and designed to ensure that he is not re-elected is the Governor of Jakarta next February.
The eyes of the world are focussed on this trial which is a test of the Indonesian legal system’s integrity and its ability to decide cases based on law and not on pressure brought to bear by hard-line Islamists and their “rent-a-crowd” followers.
To an outsider, what seems strange is that in a country of over 220 million Muslims, there is any need for an organisation such as Islamic Defenders Front. It is not as if the Islam is under threat from the Christians, Hindus and Buddhists that collectively only make up 13% of the total population. What clearly needs to be defended is Indonesia’s fledgling democracy which is the real focus of the recent anti-Ahok protest rallies.
If the defenders of democracy or Pancasila took to the streets in organised rallies across the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, they would clearly demonstrate that the forces of hard-line Islam are in the minority across the entire nation.
ResourcefulIndonesian.com will be following this case with interest on the new “Forum Pembela Pancasila” page of the website.