BenarNews: 2017: A Triumphant Year for ‘Hate Politics’ in Indonesia
Conservative Islam emerged as a potent player in Indonesian politics in 2017, and could endure through presidential elections in 2019 in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, analysts say. Hardline groups, such as the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI), chalked up a huge win when their demonstrations against Jakarta’s then-governor resulted in his arrest, trial and conviction for blasphemy against Islam. Along the way, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (“Ahok”) lost his re-election bid. Ahok was the highest-ranking public servant from the tiny ethnic-Chinese minority in Indonesian history, and a key ally of President Joko Widodo, who faces a re-election test in 2019 and won the presidency while serving as Jakarta’s governor. “There are groups that work with the radical community to overthrow President Joko Widodo,” Boni Hargens, director of the Indonesian Electoral Institute, told a seminar in Jakarta earlier this month on the role of hardline groups in politics. “These groups use tribal, rel...