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Jokowi has solid footing, but tide changing in Kalimantan
The conservative 212 movement, which created a string of sectarian rallies to prosecute former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, sent ripples across Kalimantan, which is seeing a change in its political landscape
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The pointer marks Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island. (JP/-)
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esource-rich Kalimantan is among the most diverse regions in the country. With a direct border with Malaysia in the north, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island hosts communities of multiple races, ethnicities and religions.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party have traditionally dominated Kalimantan, resulting in the victory of PDI-P member Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as president and Jusuf Kalla as vice president in 2014.
But the conservative 212 movement, which created a string of sectarian rallies to prosecute former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, sent ripples across Kalimantan, which is seeing a change in its political landscape.
In the aftermath of the 212 rally, harmony in West Kalimantan was disrupted when a cleric of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Tengku Zulkarnain, who had openly supported the sectarian protest, was rejected in Pontianak by the Dayak community.
Dayak leaders said Zulkarnain had insulted them by calling them a kafir (infidel). The community’s rejection was amplified by then-West Kalimantan governor Cornelis, who is also a member of the PDI-P and had made strong remarks against Islam Defenders Front (FPI) clerics, threatening to oust them if they ever had “the guts” to enter the province.
While the remarks were aimed to fight intolerance spread by the radical Muslim group, many found the remarks of the governor, who had served for a decade, equally provocative and intolerant.
His daughter Karolin Margret Natasa later failed to succeed him in 2018, losing to Sutarmidji, the Pontianak mayor who ran with the support of Golkar, NasDem, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP).
