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Jokowi scrambles to ease tension
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo speaks in a press conference at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who barely took a break following an overseas trip, scrambled on Tuesday to contain sectarian tension that escalated following a court decision to imprison non-active Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for blasphemy.
Soon after he arrived at the State Palace from his trip to Palu, Central Sulawesi, his last stopover after a two-day visit to Beijing, he did not even have time to change his suit before going into another meeting to discuss efforts to de-escalate the growing tension.
The meeting, which was hastily arranged at the State Palace, took place between Jokowi and representatives from the country’s key religious organizations.
Joining the religious leaders were National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian and Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, who Jokowi instructed to crack down on individuals or parties responsible for spreading hate speech that could aggravate the tension.
The President was reported to have been growing anxious amid the worsening sectarian tension while attending China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) conference in Beijing, and on Monday he ordered the State Secretariat to convene a meeting involving leaders of Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu and Confucian communities at the State Palace.
During the one-hour meeting, the religious leaders expressed their commitment to help ease the tension and pledged to champion the country’s unity.
“We talked about the latest dynamics that have grown more concerning. I’m happy to hear commitment from religious leaders and their followers to defend the unity of the country and Pancasila, as well as the 1945 Constitution in the spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika [Unity in Diversity],” Jokowi told reporters at a press conference after the meeting.
