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West Java Police question FPI leader over alleged insult to Pancasila
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National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian (left) holds hands with the chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council Ma'ruf Amin (second right) and the founder of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) Rizieq Shihab in a press conference about security plans for one of last year's mass rallies against Jakarta's Christian governor, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he West Java Police questioned on Thursday Rizieq Shihab, the founder of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), in relation to an alleged “insult against Pancasila” delivered by Rizieq.
Rizieq went to Bandung in West Java after the police sent the third summons, riding in his car with a license plate reading: B 1 FPI.
Politician Sukmawati Soekarnoputri reported Rizieq to the police for a two-minute video of Rizieq speaking in Bandung.
Sukmawati is the daughter of founding father Sukarno and the sister of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri. She is also the sister of Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, who has been named a suspect for treason.
Sukmawati said Rizieq insulted the state ideology, Pancasila, and had thus violated the law.
In the video, Rizieq said there was a difference between Sukarno’s version of Pancasila and the one written in the Jakarta Charter.
“In Sukarno’s Pancasila, faith in God is placed in the ass, but in the Jakarta Charter’s Pancasila, faith in God is placed in the head. Which one is better? Sukarno’s or the Jakarta Charter?” Rizieq said in the video.
Rizieq said his speech was an explanation of his graduate thesis on Pancasila and sharia.
He said he criticized Sukarno, who wanted to move “faith in God” from the first principle to the last in discussions with the country’s founding fathers in 1945.
“What’s in the video was a two-minute excerpt from a two-hour lecture. You should have opposed a thesis with a thesis, not a police report,” he said. (evi)
