Lenny Tristia Tambun & Arientha Primanita – Hundreds of hard-line Muslims continued their rhetoric against Jakarta's Christian deputy governor-elect on Tuesday, calling on the City Council to revoke all bylaws granting him authority to oversee Islamic institutions and affairs.
Salim Alatas, chief patron of the Jakarta chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), said that the city's newly elected second-in-command, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, should not be in charge of Islamic matters.
"The problem is that Ahok is Christian. The task and position given to Ahok contradicts Islamic Shariah law," he said.
"It goes against Shariah if a non-Muslim is appointed as amil zakat [an official in charge of collecting and distributing alms] or as an adviser to Islamic institutions. Ahok cannot fill that position. We want the bylaws revised accordingly."
Salim said that there were at least eight positions related to Islamic matters that were currently assigned to the post of deputy governor. "We call on the councilors to issue a bylaw that forbids non-Muslims from holding positions in Islamic institutions," he said.
The FPI also urged the City Council to delay the inauguration of Basuki and the governor-elect, Joko Widodo, which is scheduled for next Monday.
Members of the council's Commission A, overseeing local governance affairs, promised to convey the FPI's demands to the Jakarta administration.
Endah Pardjoko, the commission secretary, said that under the bylaws, the responsibility for handling Islamic institutions and affairs in the administration did not have to be assigned to the deputy governor, and could be taken over by the governor or the city secretary.
She also said she was optimistic that Joko would be flexible about assigning duties within his administration.
"The newly elected deputy governor was probably unaware of these bylaws. But we believe that Joko understands these bylaws," Endah said.
"It's certain that he will not be too rigid about it, he will be flexible. The governor-elect will decide and assign the appropriate tasks to his deputy."
Abdul Aziz, another member of the council's Commission A, said that the bylaws did not specifically state that the deputy governor must be in charge of the positions related to Islamic affairs, and therefore the matter could be resolved with the issuance of a gubernatorial decree.
"Since it isn't explicitly regulated, a gubernatorial decree can revise that. The decree will not violate the law," he said.
He pointed out that in order to be binding, the decree would have to be issued by Joko and not the interim governor, and therefore could not be issued before Basuki was sworn into office.
Munarman, the FPI's chief legal counsel, said the group would wait for the decree and would return to the City Council the day after the inauguration if it had not been issued.
Hard-line supporters of the former governor, Fauzi Bowo, previously attacked Basuki's faith and ethnicity in the hotly contested runoff election last month that Joko and Basuki won with 54 percent of votes.