PA 212 Unmoved to Support Jokowi after Maruf Amin VP Candidacy
10 August 2018 10:16 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Alumni 212 Brotherhood or PA 212 spokesman Novel Bamukmin said his organization would not support Jokowi despite his decision to pick Muslim cleric, Maruf Amin, as his vice presidential candidate.
“It is firm that we will never support Jokowi whoever his pair is,” Novel said on Thursday, August 9.
The incumbent Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo officially announced the Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) Maruf Amin as his vice presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential Election.
Novel admitted that PA 212 and Maruf Amin had shared history when they tried to make the former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama to be convicted in a blasphemy case. The MUI that was chaired by Maruf issued the fatwa (edict) that Ahok’s statements about the Quranic verse of Al-Maida had insulted Islam.
However, according to Novel, PA 212 and Maruf Amin are no longer on the same line. “Previously, we were still sympathetic because of the strict fatwa, but not anymore since he [Maruf] became one of those standing in the Palace,” he said.
M ROSSENO AJI