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Ahok grilled, as clerics call on Muslims not to rally
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Occupational hazard: Incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama arrives at the headquarters of the National Police in Jakarta for questioning on Tuesday. Ahok, who is seeking reelection, was questioned as a suspect in his blasphemy case. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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akarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama came to the National Police headquarters on Tuesday for his first questioning session as a suspect in a blasphemy case, as Muslim leaders called on the public to respect the ongoing legal process against the incumbent gubernatorial candidate.
Accompanied by a number of lawyers, Ahok, who seeks to extend his term in the February election, entered the police headquarters in South Jakarta at about 9 a.m., declining to comment.
He was questioned for around eight hours, in which police investigators asked him similar questions to what he was previously asked before being named a suspect, his lawyer Sirra Prayuna said.
“Pak Ahok was calm and relaxed. He answered the questions clearly,” Sirra told reporters.
Sirra said Ahok’s legal team was planning to invite 14 experts and seven witnesses to testify in the case, including eye witnesses who were present when Ahok delivered his comments on a Quranic verse during a working visit to Thousand Islands regency in Sep. 27.
Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab was set to be questioned on Wednesday as a witness. Previously, Rizieq was also questioned as an expert during the preliminary investigation of the case.
Ahok was named a suspect on Nov. 16, in a decision the police claimed to be “objective”.
Muslim groups, grouped under the National Movement to the Save Indonesia Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), previously staged a mass demonstration in Jakarta on Nov. 4, demanding the government prosecute the tough-talking governor. They plan to hold another rally on Dec. 2, of which the National Police and the Indonesian Military have said they are against.
With firebrand groups purportedly preparing for Dec. 2, Muhammadiyah and Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s two biggest Muslim organizations, have called on the former to refrain from holding another demonstration, saying the move would disrupt the ongoing legal process.
“If [the GNPF-MUI] hold the rally, it means that they are trying to take the law into their own hands. This is a country that is ruled by law, thus any conflict has to be addressed through legal mechanisms,” NU executive Masdar Farid Mas’udi told The Jakarta Post via telephone on Tuesday.
Muhammadiyah chairman for library and information Dadang Kahmad, meanwhile, said “just wait and let the process take its course and hope that there will be a fair and open trial to follow.
The Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) has also called for Muslims not to stage another rally, asking them to channel their aspirations through a more democratic way, namely through meetings with the government or through the media.
The MUI also distanced itself from the GNPF-MUI, saying the latter was not part of and did not have any formal relations with the council as an Islamic organization.
“For those societal groups who are still determined to stage a protest on Dec. 2, they shall not go onto the street wearing logos or symbols that are associated with the MUI,” MUI secretary-general Sholahuddin Al-Aiyub said.
Separately, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu played down circulating rumors saying that the massive rally slated for Dec. 2 by Muslim groups was aimed at overthrowing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration.
“Who says there will be [an act of] treason? Neither [the Defense Ministry’s] intelligence or I have heard about this,” Ryamizard said.
