Ahok Victim of `Hate Politics`, Amnesty International Says
22 February 2018 19:20 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said that the practice of ‘hate politics’ was widely used in the last Jakarta gubernatorial elections in 2017.
Hamid said that the practice, used by both state and non-state figures to divide votes, has a lasting effect. Ousted governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok, he added, was a victim of this practice.
"This divisive practice has lead to long-term social and political impacts,” Usman said in a press conference in Central Jakarta, Thursday, Feb. 22.
Read: Ahok Does Not Deserve Clemency Fadli Zon
He said that the guilty verdict against Ahok was a politics of demonization product that will be forever recorded in Indonesia’s human rights history. Usman said that Ahok’s political opponents used anti-Islamic sentiments to put the former Jakarta Governor behind bars.
“Leaders of groups like FPI, Rizieq Shihab, used hateful rhetoric to mobilize mobs to force the police to prosecute Ahok under accusations of insulting religion,” Usman remarked.
He added that the hate narrative against Ahok was purely based on his status as an ethnic and religious minority.
Not just Ahok, Usman stated that discrimination against minority groups in Indonesia has also happened to other people.
Throughout 2017, Amnesty International records showed that 11 people were prosecuted under blasphemy charges. Among them were Ahmad Mushaddeq, Mahful Muis, Tumanurung, and Andry Cahya from the Fajar Nusantara Movement or Gafatar.
M YUSUF MANURUNG
