M Rosseno Aji, Jakarta – The 212 Alumni Brotherhood (PA 212) says it will hold a series of protests in the vicinity of the Constitutional Court (MK) in Central Jakarta throughout the legal challenge against the presidential election result by the loosing ticket of Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno.

The protest actions titled "The 212's Exalted Halal Bi Halal" (Halal Bi Halal – to pay one's respects to others for past sins and mistakes), will be held on June 18, June 25 and June 28.

"Yes that's correct", said PA 212 General Secretary Bernard Abdul Jabbar when sought for confirmation on Monday June 17.

The 212's Halal Bi Halal will be held to coincide with the Constructional Court's preliminary hearing on June 18, then when the Constitutional Court judges hold their deliberations on June 25-27 and finally on June 28 when the court hands down its ruling.

The series of events are aimed at safeguarding the electoral challenge submitted by the Prabowo-Sandiaga camp's legal team. "Essentially they're the same, safeguarding the MK hearings", said Jabbar.

This is dispute the fact that Prabowo had earlier forbid his supporters from holding protest actions during the Constitutional Court hearings.

Prabowo said that there is already a delegation which is accompanying the legal team during the hearings and that he wants to avoid provocations and allegations of slander.

Earlier however, Jabbar took the opportunity to say that they pay more heed to instructions from fugitive FPI supreme leader Rizieq Shihab than any plea from Prabowo.

According to Jabbar, the PA 212 decided to hold the actions safeguarding the Constitutional Court hearings after receiving instructions from Shihab. "Yes already, [we received instructions] several days ago", he said.

Notes

The 212 Alumni Brotherhood (PA 212) is an umbrella group of hardline Islamist organisations including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the recently banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) who are affiliated with the loosing presidential ticket of Prabowo Subianto and vice presidential running mate Sandiaga Uno. Along with the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council's Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), the group was born out of the 2016-17 demonstrations against former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama. In December 2018 the PA 212 held a mass "reunion" rally in Jakarta that was attended by Prabowo and key coalition party leaders. In September the GNPF-MUI held an ulama conference (Ijtima Ulama) where Prabowo signed an integrity pact containing pledges that GNPF-U wanted fulfilled should he win the election.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Instruksi Rizieq, PA 212 Gelar Demo Hingga Putusan MK".]

Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1215395/instruksi-rizieq-pa-212-gelar-demo-hingga-putusan-mk