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Campaign fray shifts to mosques
As the country readies for the holy month of Ramadhan with the election just two weeks away, presidential candidates and their supporters are likely to take political advantage of increased activity in mosques
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As the country readies for the holy month of Ramadhan with the election just two weeks away, presidential candidates and their supporters are likely to take political advantage of increased activity in mosques.
Gerindra Party top official Mahdi Alatas, who heads the party's wing that manages Muslim communities, said the party would deploy all resources to campaign for its presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in mosques to capitalize on Ramadhan, which will start on Sunday.
'Mosques are our campaign grounds. I do not see a problem with that as Prophet Muhammad started out his political journey in a mosque,' Mahdi said. 'It is also the obligation of religious leaders to tell the public what is bad and what is good.'
Although his mother and three siblings are Christian, Prabowo has managed to win massive support from the Muslim community, as evidenced by the joining of three major Islamic parties ' the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) ' to his coalition.
As the race between Prabowo and rival Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is likely to be tight, both candidates will have to campaign through the fasting month until July 5, when the General Elections Commission (KPU) puts a stop to any campaign activities ahead of the poll on July 9.
PPP deputy chairman Emron Pangkapi said that all Muslim parties in the Gerindra coalition would 'use the fasting month as momentum to mobilize support in each stronghold.'
'This will be done during Koran recitals, fast-breaking events, and kultum [seven-minute sermons],' he said.
The Prabowo camp has been capitalizing on smear campaigns aimed at Jokowi, who has seen his electability ratings plateau due to extensive and malicious smearing that has questioned the authenticity of his claims of being a Muslim.
'Smear campaign tactics employing racial and religious issues have been massive, but I think it will backfire on the one who launched them,' said Teten Masduki, the deputy secretary for Jokowi's campaign team.
'We are aware of the fact that Prabowo's family members are non-Muslims, but we chose not to use that issue to attack him because that is contradictory to our principal of upholding pluralism,' he added.
Home to the world's largest Muslim population, religious issues are nearly always at the top of the list of voters' concerns.
The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) warned the candidates and their supporters not to use religious issues in campaigns, and that holding activities in places of worship was prohibited under the election law.
Bawaslu commissioner Nasrullah said that the agency would send letters to various organizations and religious figures requesting them to refrain from any campaign activities in mosques during the holy month.
'Recently, Bawaslu has also approached several religious figures telling them to make sure that religious sites, whether they are mosques or churches, are not used as campaign facilities,' he said.
Nasrullah added that Bawaslu had coordinated with major Islamic organizations, such as the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, to help prevent the delivery of overtly political sermons that solicit votes for certain candidates. 'We are deploying our personnel and volunteers to actively monitor such activity,' he said.
Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI) deputy chairman Masdar Farid Mas'udi said his office had released instructions last month demanding mosques be prevented from engaging in any campaign activity.
While promising that he would not misuse Ramadhan to relay his campaign messages, Jokowi said he would spend the final days of the campaign season performing Ramadhan rituals that included mass tarawih (extra prayer service), fast breaking and eating pre-dawn meals with his supporters.
'Mosques are holy places. We should not mix religious rituals with campaign activities,' Jokowi said, before wishing all Muslims in the country a very peaceful Ramadhan.
The Jokowi team has made a final push against smear tactics by emphatically countering stories published in the Obor Rakyat tabloid that claimed Jokowi was a Christian of Chinese descent.
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, who has officially declared his support for Jokowi, distributed a tabloid called the Obor Rahmat bagi Semesta (Torch for the World) to several boarding schools in West Java and Central Java that had previously received the Obor Rakyat tabloid.
Sita W. Dewi also contributed to the story.
