T

he government has finally unfrozen an annual budget of Rp 10 billion (US$751,000) that was earmarked for the Indonesian Scouts Movement (Pramuka), after the latter’s chairman, Adhyaksa Dault, officially declared in a written statement that he was not a member of the now-banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI).

“We have disbursed the budget for Pramuka. We want to save Pramuka. We should save the event as well,” Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi said at the State Palace on Monday, referring to the Pramuka Congress slated for Aug. 13 in Cibubur, West Java.

Failure to disburse the budget before the due date could put a stop to the national event, which is expected to attract around 15,000 Pramuka members from across Indonesia.

The government has launched crackdowns on civil servants and government officials believed to be HTI members after it officially banned the hard-line Islamist group on July 19.

It has also threatened to sanction state university lecturers who are part of HTI or are involved in activities related to the organization.

Pramuka became one of the earliest victims of the crackdown when Imam froze its annual budget on July 24, following information he had received suggesting Adyaksa was a member of HTI who supported the establishment of caliphate in Indonesia.

Imam confirmed he had made the decision based on a video showing Adhyaksa attending an HTI congress in 2013, which went viral days after the government announced its plan to disband HTI in May.

Adhyaksa, a former youth and sports minister during the presidency of Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has sent Imam a written statement clarifying that he was not a member of HTI.

Imam said that Pramuka officials had struck an agreement with the ministry in order to unfreeze its budget.

“Pramuka agreed it would never be involved in any activities related to HTI,” Imam said.

Contacted separately, Adhyaksa said he thanked the government for finally disbursing the budget ahead of the congress, adding that leaving Pramuka without the funds would risk the organization’s future activities.

Adhyaksa said that in addition to the letter he sent Imam, he had also met with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Gen. Budi Gunawan to explain his presence in the video.

“We hope that in the future, communication between the ministry and Pramuka will be better. If there is anything the ministry wants [Pramuka] to clarify, just give me a call so I can directly answer any questions,” Adhyaksa said.

“I swear to Allah, I am not an HTI member. I attended the HTI event only as a guest,” he added.

However, in the video, Adhyaksa can be heard supporting the establishment of a caliphate in Indonesia, a goal for which HTI has been campaigning for years.

When asked about his statement on the video, Adhyaksa confirmed that he supported the caliphate system as it was part of Islamic teachings, but such a fact did not make him an HTI member, he claimed.

Adhyaksa said the disbursement of Pramuka’s budget had brought great relief to the organization, as Pramuka representatives were currently in need of funds to prepare for the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), which is scheduled for Aug. 11 in Azerbaijan.

“As for the congress, it is expected that President Joko [‘Jokowi’] Widodo will attend the event in Cibubur,” Adhyaksa said.