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Indonesia's largest Islamic group decries appointment of retired general as religious affairs minister
Nahdlatul Ulama members have claimed Jokowi is following in the footstep of Soeharto by appointing a retired military official as religious affairs minister.
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Members of the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police and the civilian security unit under Nahdlatul Ulama’s Ansor youth wing, Barisan Ansor Serbaguna (Banser), carry a 30 meter by 40 m national flag at Sumilir Valley in Karanganyar, Central Java, on Aug. 1. (JP/Maksum Nur Fauzan )
T
he appointment of retired military general Fachrul Razi as the new religious affairs minister has sparked criticism from Indonesia's largest Islamic mass organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which backed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection bid and whose members have regularly occupied the post for decades.
Fachrul's appointment marks the first time in the era since the fall of Soeharto, also known as the Reform Era, that the position has gone to someone from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and not a member of the NU or the country's second largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah.
The move to appoint Fachrul, the TNI's deputy commander from 1999 to 2000 and a member of Jokowi's team of experts during his first term in office, was made amid Jokowi’s fight against Islamic radicalism.
A number of terror attacks, some deadly, have occurred since Jokowi took office, the latest being a knife attack against former coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister Wiranto earlier this month.
Throughout the three decades of Soeharto's New Order, the country's longest serving president also appointed religious affairs ministers with military backgrounds, namely Lt. Gen. (ret.) Alamsyah Ratu Perwiranegara and Rear Adm. (ret.) Tarmizi Taher, although the latter also came from a family known for its strong Islamic activism.
Jokowi's decision has drawn criticism from the NU, with several of its central board (PBNU) figures expressing their disappointment, citing Fachrul's lack of experience in overseeing religious affairs.
A number of the NU's clerics had previously expressed hope that a number of ministerial positions in Jokowi’s new Cabinet would go to NU members and the NU’s unofficial political arm, the National Awakening Party (PKB), given their support for Jokowi and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin, the NU's former supreme leader, in the 2019 presidential election.
