Jakarta – The Jakarta administration has cancelled a monthly religious event that planned to feature preacher Felix Siauw, a supporter of the banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), at Fatahillah Mosque inside the City Hall complex on Wednesday.
"We have cancelled it," the head of the Jakarta Civil Servant Corps Secretariat, Amiruddin, said on Tuesday, kompas.com reported, without specifying the reason for cancelling the event.
He said that he only followed an instruction given to him by Jakarta Employment Agency head Chaidir.
Separately, Chaidir confirmed that he had ordered for the cancellation even though the event had long been planned. He also declined to specify why the event was cancelled. "What is important is that we cancelled it," he said.
He said the administration would no longer invite Felix to events organized by the administration. "Of course not. We will see what his [Felix's] interest is first," Chaidir said.
Besides being a prolific preacher and writer, the Chinese-Indonesian preacher was also a member of hard-line group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, which was disbanded following a Jakarta State Administrative Court decision in 2017.
Previously, the Jakarta Women's Empowerment, Family Planning and Child Protection Agency (PPAPP) was also under fire for inviting HTI's women wing Muslimah HTI and newly formed online movement Indonesia Tanpa Feminisme (Indonesia Without Feminism) to an event to discuss the content of a poster on preventing violence against women and children. (ami)