Tag: FPI

Indonesian judges reject demand to ban sex outside marriage – The Daily Telegraph

SINGAPORE – Indonesia’s constitutional court today turned down a petition to have extra-marital sex banned, the latest culture war skirmish in the world’s biggest Muslim democracy. A narrow 5-4 majority of judges voted to reject the request made by a group called the Family Love Alliance which said it wants Indonesian law to categorise adultery to mean any relationship that involves sex outside marriage, not just married people having affairs. The group said it would appeal the decision and is hoping that like-minded MPs will resume the campaign in parliament to criminalise “sexual deviance,” including gay relationships as well as adultery.

Indonesian Islamists celebrate success ahead of election season – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA — With volcano Mt. Agung billowing ash into the sky above his home island, the majority-Hindu Bali, Khairy Susanto was unsure if he would be able to fly home on December 3, the day after he joined tens of thousands of fellow Indonesian Islamists at a rally held in the shadow of Monas, the national monument that towers over a huge plaza across the street from the presidential palace in Jakarta. “Inshallah, we can fly, but it doesn’t matter, we will be ok,” he said. “We are happy to be here today to celebrate our victory.” The event was organized to mark a year since an estimated half million people chanted in the rain for the arrest of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Governor of Jakarta. Purnama, a Protestant of Chinese descent nicknamed “Ahok,” since lost the gubernatorial election and was jailed for two years in May on the same blasphemy charges that twice brought hundreds of thousands of people onto Jakarta’s streets late last year.

Thousands of Indonesians protest at Jakarta embassy over Burma’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims – The Daily Telegraph

JAKARTA — Thousands of Indonesian Muslims chanting “Allahu Akbar” protested in central Jakarta on Wednesday at Burma’s treatment of its 1.1 million Rohingya minority. Around 146,000 Rohingya have fled Burma military counter-insurgency operations into Bangladesh over the past two weeks. The army’s reprisals came after Rohingya militants stormed Burma army and police posts in August. Wednesday’s protest was the fourth and biggest pro-Rohingya demonstration over the past week in the Indonesian capital, the commercial centre of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country. The event was peaceful, though toward the end several dozen demonstrators tried to push through police barricades and razor-wire set up about 200 yards from the Burmese embassy. Overhead swung an effigy of the Buddhist monk Wirathu, leader of an anti-Islamic movement in Burma that has been blamed for stirring anti-Rohingya feeling in the predominantly Buddhist country.

Tepid end to Jakarta election campaign – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA — A tumultuous election campaign for the job of running one of the world’s biggest, most traffic-clogged and flood-prone cities drew to a relatively placid close over the final weekend before the Feb. 15 vote. Candidates in the race for the Jakarta governorship ended a last televised debate by grinning cheek-to-cheek in a group selfie photograph. As staged as it was, it was a rare cordial moment in a combative campaign. It came the day before Islamist groups held a last-ditch rally against the sitting governor, who they accuse of blasphemy. The rally drew a much smaller turnout than the hundreds of thousands of people who flocked to two similar protests in late 2016 against the incumbent governor, adding to the sense that the contentious election campaign had left participants drained. “It has been divisive but I am happy that the debate in the end is focusing on policies and programs, it takes the tensions down a bit,” said Sandiaga Uno, a candidate for vice governor and running mate of Anies Baswedan, one of two challengers seeking to oust the embattled incumbent, Bakuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as “Ahok.”

The Islamist challenge to Jokowi – Foreign Affairs

JAKARTA – Around lunchtime on December 2, the skies opened over Jakarta. But the downpour was probably the last thing on Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s mind as he strolled the few hundred yards from the presidential palace to a nearby plaza, where an estimated half a million Islamist protesters were chanting for the arrest of one of his political allies. Such blusukan — casual walkabouts in markets and villages—were a key part of Widodo’s electioneering and made him seem a down-to-earth man of the people in voters’ eyes. All the same, the protesters were taken aback by the president’s gate-crashing, especially when he joined their ranks, which included some of Indonesia’s most hard-line Islamist leaders, for Friday prayers. “Jokowi,” as the president is known, commended the drenched crowd for assembling peacefully, interspersing his brief cameo with cries of “Allahu Akbar,” and prayed with Habib Rizieq Shihab, the head of the shadowy Islamic Defenders Front, known as the FPI, an Indonesian acronym. One protester, who gave his name as Ahmad, said that he was very surprised, but that “it was good that Jokowi spoke; it helps Indonesia be united.” Ahmad said that he had flown in from Bali, a majority Hindu holiday island, to attend the demonstration. The target of his and the other protesters’ ire was Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama], who was deputy governor of Jakarta and was elevated to the governorship in 2014 when Widodo, who had held the post, became president. Purnama is a Christian of Chinese descent, a blunt and forceful outsider running the capital of the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population.

Riots mar end of Islamist protest against Jakarta governor – Los Angeles Times

JAKARTA – One protester died and several were injured after tens of thousands of Muslims flooded the streets of Jakarta to protest against the city’s Christian and ethnic Chinese governor after allegations that he insulted Islam. President Joko Widodo said after midnight that he was “disappointed” by the violence — demonstrations that raised fears that anti-Chinese sentiment, which erupted in deadly violence in 1998, could once again flare. Widodo urged the protesters to disperse, saying that the accusations against the governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, would be handled by the police. “The demonstration shows that this can easily be mobilized, especially among the poor in Jakarta,” said Charlotte Setijadi, an expert on Chinese Indonesians at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. An estimated 2% to 3% of Indonesia’s 250 million people are of Chinese descent, and though prominent in business, they have historically been weak politically. Rumors spread Friday that the city’s ethnic Chinese community could be targeted by angry mobs, with police struggling to curtail a group of protesters trying to break into the governor’s residence in the north of the city.

Indonesia mulls expanding alcohol restrictions – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA – With restrictions on small retailers now in place, a wider ban is now being pushed by two of the four Islamic parties represented in Indonesia’s parliament, the United Development Party (known by its Indonesian initials as the PPP) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). The proposed law seeks to ban the production, distribution, sale and consumption of beverages containing more than 1% alcohol. Offenders found distributing or producing alcohol could face between two and 10 years in prison, or a fine of up to 1 billion rupiah ($77,205). Anyone caught drinking alcohol could face a prison term of between three months and two years.