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NII ban not needed: Assembly leader
As East Java moves to issue a regulation banning the Indonesia Islamic State (NII) movement, the speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly said Tuesday such regulation was not necessary
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s East Java moves to issue a regulation banning the Indonesia Islamic State (NII) movement, the speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly said Tuesday such regulation was not necessary.
Assembly Speaker Taufik Kiemas said there was no need to mete out the treatment, similar to that faced by the Indonesian Communist Party, because the Islamic movement had never attempted a coup, unless proven otherwise.
An attempt to thwart the growth of the NII, which aspires to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state, is currently underway in East Java, with the provincial administration planning the issuance of a gubernatorial regulation.
East Java deputy governor Saifullah Yusuf said Tuesday the administration was drafting the regulation and studying the sociopolitical implications.
Responding to the plan, Taufik said it was more important for the people to strengthen their ideology rather than arbitrarily ban organizations.
“The most important thing is to strengthen our own ideology. We can overcome any problems if we have a strong ideology,” he said.
Back in the mainstream: This man, a resident of Jombang, East Java, claims he fell victim to the Indonesian Islamic State (NII) movement in 1998. He said Tuesday he joined the NII when he was a student in neighboring Malang and was promised by his recruiters a teaching job at al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in West Java. Antara/Syaiful Arif
Taufik suggested the government reinforce the state ideology of Pancasila, as radicalism could only be tackled if people banded together.
The NII, which began in the early 1950s, has been blamed for the disappearance of several university students in different regions, alleged to have been brainwashed into joining the movement.
On Monday, a former “minister” for NII, Imam Supriyanto, told the House of Representatives that the NII had infiltrated political parties posing as members.
Imam, a member of the faculty at al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in West Java, said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party donated US$10,000 to the school, which is widely seen as a front to promote NII ideology and recruit followers.
The party’s deputy chairman, Ahmad Mubarok, confirmed the claim Tuesday, saying the party had always donated funds to Islamic schools.
Democratic Party legislator M. Jafar Hafsah said it was difficult to identify if anyone in his party was involved with the NII.
He said his party would identify those members with links to the NII if the government banned the organization.
Imam claimed the daughter of one of Al-Zaytun’s leaders was a Golkar politician and a member of the Indramayu legislature in West Java.
Golkar Party central executive board member Priyo Budi Santoso said Tuesday his party had a strong platform that would not be contaminated by competing ideologies. He denied allegations Golkar had been infiltrated by the NII.
The head of the House’s Golkar wing, Setya Novanto, told news portal kompas.com that party chairman Aburizal Bakrie had instructed all party members to distance themselves from Al-Zaytun.
Setya acknowledged that Golkar had close ties to the Islamic school in the past, but stressed that this was no longer the case.
Taufik, who also chairs the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) advisory board, dismissed speculation his party’s members were susceptible to infiltration by the NII. “We have a strong ideology. God willing, we are safe,” he said.
