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5,000 Brimob personnel to guard Friday's anti-communist rally
At least 5,000 personnel from the police’s Mobile Brigade command (Brimob) will be deployed to guard an anti-communist rally set to be held in Jakarta on Friday.
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Members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) burn a fabric marked with a communist symbol in Surabaya, East Java, on June 1. (Antara/Didik Suhartono)
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t least 5,000 personnel from the police’s Mobile Brigade command (Brimob) will be deployed to guard Friday’s anti-communist rally in Jakarta.
“Some Brimob personnel [at the regional level] will be moved to Jakarta to strengthen the personnel here [in Jakarta],” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto said on Thursday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.
Setyo said the personnel would come from West Java, Banten, Central Java and East Java.
Thousands of people are set to participate in the rally, including members of conservative Muslim groups who rallied against former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in November last year.
The participants will protest against what they perceive as a revival of communism in the country.
They will also protest the newly-issued regulation in lieu of a law (Perppu) on mass organizations, which is being used as a legal instrument by the government to disband Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an Islamist organization that seeks to establish a global Islamic caliphate.
“We instruct [participants] to be peaceful at the rally,” Setyo warned.
Fears of a communist revival have swept the country ahead of Sept. 30, the date when an attempted coup against President Sukarno and the murder of six army generals was blamed on the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party. (saf/ary)
