TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said Novel Bamukmin, the field coordinator responsible for organizing the Islamic Defenders Front's (FPI) demonstration in front of the Jakarta City Hall, has refused to reveal the mastermind and financial donor of the demonstration.

The rally which ended in chaos happened on October 3, when FPI members congregated en masse in front of the City Hall to oppose the ascendancy of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as the Governor of Jakarta, replacing Joko Widodo.

"Novel has refused to reveal the financial donors behind the demonstration," said Rikwanto at the Jakarta Police Headquarters yesterday, adding that his team could not speculate on the identities of the financial backers of the rally. "We have to base our judgment on facts, not hypotheses and/or speculations. That is the domain of our intelligence services," Rikwanto added.

Any information gathered by the intelligence will be treated as clues and leads, and will be processed by Jakarta Police's Research Units beforehand. "Suspects that we have apprehended so far could only tell us about the chronological order of the event," said Rikwanto.

During the demonstration and the subsequent crackdown on the protest, many of the rally participants - the majority of whom hail from West Java - were found to be carrying rocks in their pockets. "They claim that they intend to use the rocks as replacements for prayer beads, which doesn't make sense at all," said Rikwanto.

HERMAWAN SETYANTO