JAKARTA, Indonesia — The scene last week here in Indonesia’s capital was surprisingly cordial. Officials for Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Muslim organization, opened their doors and warmly greeted Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, the capital city’s first Christian governor in decades.
“We don’t discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims,” says Said Aqil Siradj, the leader of the organization, also known as NU, a 50-million strong moderate Muslim civil society group. “We wish [Ahok] a long life, health, and God’s blessings.”
The warmth displayed by this senior Muslim figure stands in stark relief to the massive Islamist protest movement against Ahok that has periodically paralyzed Jakarta since October last year. Conservative Islamic groups’ anger toward Ahok stems from comments he made last autumn, where he strongly critiqued the way conservative hard-line Muslim leaders interpreted the Quran. Ahok is now standing trial on blasphemy charges over his comments.
The outcry Ahok’s comments stirred have taken on greater significance as he seeks victory in the April 19 runoff election for governor of Jakarta, a race that has transfixed this nation of 255 million people, and drawn interest from outside of the country. The blasphemy case against Ahok, the large scale of protests against him, and the attacks on his Chinese ethnicity are threatening the reputation of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim democracy, as a model nation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.
“It’s a new era for the state,” says I Ketut Putra Erawan, executive director of Indonesia’s Peace and Democracy Institute. “Identity issues are creeping now.”
Concern here also is rising that Indonesia’s centuries-long moderate Muslim tradition is steadily giving way to more fundamentalist strains of the religion. At the same time, the Islamist campaign against religious pluralism — voiced in the protests against Ahok — has awakened a moderate Muslim reaction that is deeply opposed to religious hard-liners. With polls showing an extremely tight race, the question on Election Day will be whether NU’s support is enough to push the embattled Ahok to victory.
Ahok, a blunt-speaking Chinese-Indonesian Christian, is the rare double minority to rise in Indonesian politics, a career that began in the early 21st century. He became Jakarta’s deputy-governor in 2012 as the running mate of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was elected governor. In 2014, Ahok became Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese and Christian leader to hold the Jakarta governorship, elevated to the position after Jokowi became president in the 2014 general election.
His election victories have sparked a backlash. Since he ran for deputy-governor in 2012, hard-line Muslim organizations have argued that the Quran forbids Muslims from selecting non-Muslims as leaders, in an effort to attack the ambitious, highly popular pluralist politician.
Ahok has fought back against conservative Islamists. He was charged late last year for insulting Islam after he warned Jakarta residents to ignore imams who told them that the Quran forbids non-Muslim leadership. Ahok’s words succeeded in alienating many Muslims, who make up more than 85 percent of Jakarta’s sprawling population of more than 9 million people.
Today, hard-line Muslim leaders accuse Ahok of disrespecting the Quran, insulting Muslim religious leaders and being an infidel.
“He always insults Islam, he has such a crude mouth,” says Muhammad Al Khaththath, the chairman of the Islamic community group Forum Umat Islam and a key leader of the anti-Ahok movement. Al Khaththath, like many hard-line leaders involved in the February protest, wants to see Indonesia’s secular constitution replaced by the stringent application of Sharia law, and says non-Muslim leaders should be forbidden from senior government posts.
That stands in contrast to NU, which was founded in 1926 with a primary mission: oppose puritanical Salafi Islam coming from the Middle East. The organization was built by traditionalist leaders who wanted to preserve Indonesia’s unique Muslim traditions. Over the decades, NU opposed both Indonesian leftists who wanted to push for a secular society as well as Salafi Islamists who wanted the state to be run by hardline interpretations of Sharia law.
In the social unrest that has preceded Jakarta’s election, large and ponderous NU, with its traditional, tolerant Islam, was outmaneuvered by smaller hardline organizations that had the clear and unwavering agenda to challenge Ahok.
“It turns out that NU isn’t really effective at influencing organizations” that are demonstrating, says Alissa Wahid, an activist descended from NU’s founder. That began changing a few weeks ago, after President Joko Widodo, a close ally of Ahok and a Muslim who is loosely affiliated with NU, started pressuring political parties with ties to the organization to support Ahok over hardline Muslim forces.
Prominent NU officials began making their opposition to Islamic extremism known earlier this month, even if they were still lukewarm on the blunt-talking Ahok. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, the head of NU’s youth division, endorsed the Christian candidate.
“The reason isn’t that I love Ahok,” he says, adding that he was more bothered by Ahok’s opponent, Anies Baswedan, who has courted hard-line Muslim forces.
NU today is continuing to play its role of opposing Islamist forces that have ideologies sourced from the Middle East says Tobias Basuki, a researcher at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Jakarta. “The cleavage we’re seeing now is a cleavage from the past,” he says. “This political Islam that we see is a co-option of Indonesian Islam.”
Many members of NU are far more worried about the rise of right-wing Islamist groups in Indonesia than they are about Ahok. “NU is aware that if Anies wins, the [right-wing Islamist] Prosperous Justice Party will benefit politically, socially, and financially,” says Savic Ali, a progressive activist who edits NU-affiliated websites. “That will have the effect of making the Prosperous Justice Party stronger, which is of deep concern to NU.”
Said Aqil Siradj, the NU leader, has aggressively promoted the local form of Islam, called Islam Nusantara, which he says matches better with Indonesian traditions and culture than more austere Arabic forms of the religion. “It’s Islam Nusantara that protects the nation, not radical Islam, not Arabized Islam,” he told an audience earlier this month.
Said’s concern about radical Islam may just be enough to get Ahok over the finish line, according to Marcus Meitzer, an associate professor at Australia National University. “Ahok is not a close NU ally, he’s an enemy of NU’s enemies. And in elections, that sometimes makes for good friends,” Meitzer wrote in an email.
If Ahok manages to win this week’s election it will be because Indonesia’s moderate Muslims chose the imperfect Christian candidate over the hard-line Muslim alternative.
“Given how close this election is, even shifting a few thousand votes can matter,” Meitzer says. “It certainly will not guarantee an Ahok victory, but if he does scrape over the line, the NU votes may have helped.”
More from U.S. News
Indonesia’s Rock Stars Still Support a President from the Slums
Developing Countries Struggle with Treating Mental Illness
Jakarta Election Tests Indonesia’s Moderate Muslim Reputation originally appeared on usnews.com
