Rough and bad –
but still committed to democracy
Overseas observers of Indonesian politics should not be too
disheartened by the divisive Jakarta gubernatorial election campaign despite
the trauma and the result, according to religious peace activist Yenny Wahid (left)
“The
campaign and result will be seen badly by the rest of the world,” the director
of the faith-freedom watchdog Wahid Institute told Strategic Review.
“Radicals did not control their excesses. We are not happy that politics is being
driven by religious sentiment.
“It opened a Pandora’s Box but it’s also important not to
jump to conclusions. Investors should
stay engaged. We are still committed to democracy and the protection of
minority rights. We must keep talking to
each other.”
The campaign featured mass protests - one drew a crowd of
half-a-million – organized by Islamists fervently opposed to Governor Basuki
(Ahok) Tjahaja Purnama.
The
‘double-minority’ politician (he’s an ethnic Chinese and Protestant) conceded
defeat to Muslim candidate and former Education
Minister Dr Anies Baswedan after the 19 April election when unofficial
quick counts showed a 57-43 percent result.
Turnout was just under 78 percent of the Indonesian capital’s
7.2 million registered voters according to the General Elections Commission.
The
campaign was interpreted by some foreign media as a ‘triumph of prejudice over
pluralism’. The Jakarta Post dubbed it ‘the dirtiest, most polarizing and most
divisive the nation has ever seen’.
Stirring
the mud was a blasphemy charge against Ahok. In a stump speech last year he allegedly
suggested a verse in the Koran was being misused to mean voting for a kafir (unbeliever) was sinful.
The
radicals claimed the Jakarta Governor had insulted the Holy Book and should be
jailed; Ahok responded that his targets were preachers using religion in
politics.
“What we’re seeing, more or less, is an Indonesian version
of the US with the Trump win, the Brexit vote in Britain and the rise of (National
Front leader) Marine Le Pen in France,” said Wahid.
“The economic gap is getting wider everywhere and people
are frustrated… they feel left out of the system and the structure doesn’t
allow them to move up a level.”
(This year Oxfam reported that the four richest men
in Indonesia have more wealth than the poorest 100 million and that ‘inequality
is slowing down poverty reduction, dampening economic growth and threatening
social cohesion’.)
The Jakarta-based Wahid Institute is named after Abdurrahman
Wahid (Gus Dur) who died in 2009. Prior
to becoming Indonesia’s fourth President in 1999 he led the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest
Islamic organization with 40 million members.
Wahid helped her father during his 21 months in
office. She has a master’s degree in
public administration from Harvard and worked as a journalist for Australia’s
Fairfax newspapers. In 2009 she was named a Young
Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
She’s become the face of religious harmony in Indonesia with
her views sought by international leaders.
This month [april] she met US Vice President Mike Pence and will talk to
the Pope in the Vatican next month. [may]
Wahid, 42, constantly addresses all faith groups to promote
respect for diversity. Freedom of
worship is guaranteed in the 1945 Constitution which holds that the nation is
secular. There are six
government-approved religions.
However Indonesia is also the world’s largest Muslim
country with around 88 per cent of its 250 million population as
adherents. Extremists argue these statistics
warrant an Islamic state. In 2005 the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI Council of Indonesian Scholars) issued
a fatwa (religious instruction)
outlawing pluralism, secularism and liberalism.
“It (being director of the Wahid Institute) is hard
emotionally because I have family commitments with a husband and three daughters,”
Wahid said. “It might be easier if I was
a man in this macho society, but then the pressures could be physical rather
than mental.
“I get my values and spirit from my Dad. He said ‘be brave, don’t hate and don’t lie’.
I feel that I have to work for religious understanding – it’s an obligation.
“Dad followed the Javanese principle of sumeleh which means love of God and acceptance when all things
that can be done have been done. It’s
not fatalism.
“Of course we were
disappointed with the election result. We expected Ahok to be given a second
chance.
“But I was surprised to discover many older Chinese voted
for Anies because they feared the whole brouhaha of the campaign and personal intimidation
if Ahok won. Some human rights activists
voted against Ahok because they disapproved of his forced slum-clearance
policies.”
Baswedan, 47, a US-educated former university
rector, has been labelled a moderate. He is now expected to be either a
contender in the 2019 Presidential election or use his power base as Jakarta
Governor to champion former army general Prabowo Subianto, 65 who narrowly lost
to Joko (Jokowi) Widodo in 2014.
Subianto’s Gerindra
(Great Indonesia Movement) Party supported Baswedan’s campaign.
Wahid rejected the suggestion that strict Islamic sharia law would be enforced in Jakarta
to placate the extremists who helped defeat Ahok
“Gerindra is
basically a secular party and they would be the first to feel the heat,” she
said. “They would push back vigorously
against sharia. Many members and backers,
like business tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo, are Chinese Christians.
“How do you answer this (conundrum)? I’m told that if anyone
other than Ahok had made comments about the Koranic verse there would have been
no worries.
“As a former journalist I understand why editors pick photos
of fist shaking radicals waving posters over pictures of nice moderates – but the
political situation in Indonesia is not clear cut or as bad as some think.
“There are many versions of Islam. Indonesian Islam in its
moderate form can bring enlightenment to the world - and show that there are
other ways than extremism. Despite the Jakarta election campaign that’s the
message I want others to hear. We just
have to work harder.”
##
First published in Strategic Review, 25 April 2017: http://sr-indonesia.com/web-exclusives/view/bad-news-but-still-committed-to-democracy
No comments:
Post a Comment