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View all search resultsShapeshifters, FPI, premarital sex and our pseudo state
Ariel Heryanto, sociologist and professor emeritus at Monash University, recently said that even after three generations, we were still politically illiterate.
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W
hat is your favorite shapeshifting character? You know, those human-like creatures who can change into anything they want? Mine is the Jennifer Lawrence version of Mystique from the X-Men series. She’s blue, she’s beautiful, she’s a badass, and she has multiple powers beyond shapeshifting.
Indonesia has its fair share of shape-shifters. The one most talked about at the moment is not a person, but a social organization: the notorious Islam Defenders Front, better known by its acronym, the FPI.
On Dec. 30, 2020, Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Mafhud MD officially announced the group’s disbandment.
No sooner had it been done, the FPI’s leader, Rizieq Shihab, nonchalantly said, “Relax, just create a new vehicle”. So, they don’t even need to shapeshift, they simply rename themselves, from Front Pembela Islam (Islam Defenders Front) to Front Persatuan Islam (United Islamic Front). In initials and in spirit, it is still the FPI.
Prodemocracy activists have decried the ban, because it sets a worrying precedent of curtailing civil liberties (see “Crackdown on FPI sets off alarm bells”, The Jakarta Post, Jan. 3).
The Koalisi Masyarakat Sipil (Civil Society Coalition), as well as the University of Indonesia Executive Board (BEM UI), issued similar statements. They state clearly they are not defending the FPI, but express concerns regarding the banning procedure, “as it seems to give absolute power to the executive to simply dissolve social organizations”.
But it’s not just state actors, it’s also civil society members who don’t follow the rules.
