TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said he was baffled by the issues surrounding the operation permit of hard-line Islamic group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).
Ahok said the Home Affairs Ministry had once attempted to disband FPI yet to no avail as it was not registered at the ministry’s Directorate General for National and Political Unity.
In July 2013, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono threatened to dismiss FPI for insulting him—a threat that never happened.
“The president wanted to disband them back then, but it could not be done because they were unregistered. How come they are now registered when they are going against me?” Ahok said at the City Hall on Wednesday, October 8, 2014.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi confirmed that FPI had been registered as a mass organization at his ministry. “They are registered, a mass organization,” he said at the presidential office on Thursday, July 25, 2013.
Ahok said he had had enough with FPI. “Just ask the ministry,” he said, but adding that he was against all anarchic, mass organizations and that they should all be disbanded.
“They are supposed to be suspended. The president can do it. Unfortunately I’m not the president,” he said.
ERWAN HERMAWAN
