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Sectarianism simmers as Jakarta election approaches
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Chairman of National Mandate Party (PAN) Honorary Council Amien Rais is speaking at an event in Jakarta. (tribunnews.com/Dany Permana)
S
ectarianism is worsening ahead of the Jakarta gubernatorial election, where, for the first time in history, a Christian and Chinese-Indonesian candidate has topped many polls as the most electable candidate to lead the capital.
Some Islamic groups have tried out various schemes to prevent the reelection of the clear frontrunner, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, whom they refer to as a kafir (non-believer), including calling on Muslim voters to join together in an alliance to oppose him.
They gained momentum on Sunday, when thousands of people gathered at Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta and issued a nine- point accord, known as the Risalah Istiqlal, for Muslim voters. One of the points stipulated in the accord is that it is haram (forbidden by Islamic law) for Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim candidate.
“Number four, we call on all Muslims to abide by their religious [teachings] by only voting for a Muslim candidate. It is haram to vote for a non-Muslim candidate or abstain from voting,” said former National Police chief Gen. (ret.) Da’i Bachtiar, said, reading from the accord.
Prominent individuals in attendance at the gathering included Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) co-founder Hidayat Nur Wahid and National Mandate Party (PAN) senior politician Amien Rais. Meanwhile, former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who is likely to contest the election, also joined the event.
Abdul Mukti, secretary-general of Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Islamic organization, said the declaration was a political product made by individuals and therefore had no right whatsoever to represent the voice of the Muslim community as a whole.
He added, however, that the call to not vote for a non-Muslim candidate did not violate democratic principles.
“But, in our democracy today, religious sentiments have always been ineffective in influencing voters’ decisions,” Abdul told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Sunday’s declaration of the Risalah Istiqlal was the culmination of a series of previous attacks, some of them racially charged, against Ahok.
On the same occasion, Amien, who has been a consistent critic of Ahok, called the governor the dajjal (Antichrist). Previously, in his Idul Adha sermon in North Jakarta, Amien called on people to vote for a candidate “who does not have a penchant for evictions, who does not serve the interests of the capitalists”.
“It is just fine. He is just an old man after all,” Ahok said, responding to Amien’s attacks on Sunday night.
“I pity him. He is quite old yet still very emotional. I pray to God he has a long life and good health. There is no need for him to show his temper,” Nusron Wahid, head of Ahok’s campaign team, said.
The use of sectarian issues is unlikely to be successful in changing the opinion of the around 7 million voters in Jakarta, as the number of moderate voters who base their decisions on rational calculations was large, said Jakarta-based pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC).
SMRC noted in a survey conducted in June that extreme voters, who strictly based their decision on religious considerations, rather than rational calculations, only accounted for around 12 percent of respondents. These strict religious voters, the survey said, were people who had only obtained a basic education.
The survey said that more than 22 percent of Jakarta voters had finished university and around 50 percent were high school graduates. Meanwhile only 13 percent of voters were elementary school graduates and another 13 percent had only finished junior high school.
“Even if these religious sentiments are continuously voiced, they will likely just influence the 12 percent of people in the extreme camp,” SMRC survey program director Sirojudin Abbas told the Post.
Sunday’s declaration might be just the tip of an iceberg of sectarianism in Jakarta.
Sectarianism marred the previous Jakarta election in 2012, when current President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo contested the election with Ahok as his running mate. Some groups at the time doubted that Jokowi was a Muslim, and incorrectly claimed that his mother was a Christian.
Despite the steady flow of racial attacks on the pair, the Jokowi-Ahok pair managed to win the 2012 gubernatorial election. (adt)
