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Ulema council purges govt critics from its ranks
Din Syamsuddin, a prominent Islamic scholar from Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization Muhammadiyah, is no longer on either the executive board or the advisory board.
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he Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) elected its new leadership this week, consisting of Muslim clerics friendly to the government who replaced a coterie of critics of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, including prominent Islamic scholar Din Syamsuddin.
The MUI congress, which wrapped up on Friday, has also issued a number of recommendations that could be seen as a victory for Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, including an edict allowing the use of vaccines derived from human cells in an emergency situation, even though such vaccines are traditionally banned under Islamic law.
Ma'ruf himself also managed to pull off a maneuver that allowed him to be elected to the council's advisory board, replacing Din, who served between 2015 and 2020. Prior to his election as chairman of the advisory board, Din served as MUI chairman between 2005 and 2010.
While serving as chairman of the advisory board, Din made his opposition to President Jokowi known to the public, including in 2017, when he fought against the reelection campaign of then-Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. Din called Ahok a “troublemaker” following the blasphemy allegation leveled against the Chinese-Indonesian politician, an epithet that has become a rallying call in massive rallies demanding his prosecution.
Aside from Din, other senior Muslim figures kicked out of MUI boards include Bachtiar Nasir, who served as deputy secretary of the ulema council advisory board from 2015 to 2020.
Bachtiar has recently served as chairman of the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), a conservative Islamic group that organized a massive rally that led to the prosecution of Ahok for blasphemy in 2017.
Also missing from the MUI's new leadership lineup is Tengku Zulkarnain, who served as deputy secretary general from 2015 to 2020. Tengku was an ally to Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab and has been a very outspoken critic of government policies.
Bachtiar and Tengku were both part of the Save Indonesia Coalition (KAMI), an outfit cofounded by Din calling for the government “to uphold truth and social justice”. In October, eight KAMI members were arrested following their participation in protests against the Job Creation Law.
Another senior Muslim figure losing his job at the MUI is Yusuf Muhammad Martak, chairman of the National Movement to Safeguard Ulama (GNPF-Ulama), who has served as the MUI’s treasurer from 2015 to 2020.
The GNPF-Ulama has also been active in the anti-Ahok rallies and helped organize the massive event to welcome the return of Rizieq from his self-proclaimed exile in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. President Jokowi has cited failure to prevent the massive gathering to welcome Rizieq as a pretext to fire Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Nana Sudjana and West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Rudy Sufahradi Novianti.
Replacing Ma’ruf as the new chairman of the MUI is Miftachul Akhyar, representing Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization. Ma'ruf also has a senior position in NU.
Other senior figures who served as members of MUI's executive board include Anwar Abbas, Marsyudi Suhud, Basri Bermanda and Amirsyah Tambunan, who was appointed secretary-general.
In a statement released on Friday, Ma'ruf, who also delivered a closing remark for the meeting at the Sultan Hotel in Central Jakarta, described the decision-making process as amicable.
“The atmosphere is very dynamic, not chaotic, so Alhamdulillah [thank God] the meeting led to this decision. The result is final and can't be contested,” Ma’ruf said.
Newly appointed deputy charirman Anwar Abbas said the new lineup had met three criteria of representation, integrity and competence, consistent with the ulema council's role as “the big tent” for Muslims.
Separately, Din criticized the MUI's new leadership lineup. “Leadership of the executive and advisory board should not both come from NU. Representatives from other organizations need to be accommodated proportionally,” Din said on Friday, as quoted by Tempo.
Political analyst Ujang Komarudin of Indonesia Political Review said the MUI was now fully in the hands of the government after shutting out everyone who could be deemed government critics.
He also criticized the role of Ma'ruf, an elected government official, serving in an influential position at the MUI. “The MUI should not be too close to power. It will lose its [independent] voice,” Ujang told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Fellow analyst Adi Prayitno of the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, however, was convinced that the new leadership of the MUI would allow the organization to go back to the basics of dealing with religious affairs, instead of being involved in politics.
He said the presence of many political activists especially associated with the 212 movement, born out of the anti-Ahok rally on Dec. 12, 2016, could compromise the work of the organization.
“It was as if what these 212 activists say represent MUI’s values, even though it is their personal beliefs. They were actively commenting on the 2019 presidential election and some even supported a certain presidential candidate,” Adi said.
