FPI inilah yang dibela ayub yahya.
--- In [email protected], "Sunny" <ambon@...> wrote: > > http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NG12Ae02.html > > Jul 12, 2012 > > Runaway radicals in Indonesia > By Jacob Zenn > > Indonesia's Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) pressure group has this year in > turns assaulted Ahmadiya and Christian places of worship, attacked > journalists who reported critically on its activities, forced through > intimidation the cancellation of Lady Gaga's scheduled concert, and ambushed > various government police stations and courts. > > While the radical fundamentalist group purports to be growing in numbers, up > to 30,000 members according to the FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab, it is > simultaneously undermining many of the secular foundations on which Indonesia > was founded and has since thrived in the ongoing transition from autocracy to > democracy. > > President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's inability or unwillingness to curb the > FPI's intimidation tactics, meanwhile, has dented his administration's > self-touted reform credentials at a crucial time for the country's > international standing as a moderate Muslim democracy. How he deals with the > group in the months ahead will largely determine his legacy as a twice > elected democratic reformer. > > The FPI was founded in 1998 as opportunities opened up for Islamists to > engage in political activities banned during former dictator Suharto's 32 > years of iron fist rule. The group's first priority was to amend the first > principle of Pancasila (Sanskrit for "five principles"), which forms the > official ideological foundation of the Indonesian state. > > The principle of godliness, including the implementation of sharia law for > Muslims, was included in the original Pancasila, but independence hero and > former President Sukarno replaced it with the wording that stands today, "the > belief in one God" (Ketuhanan yang masa eha). > > Without specific recognition of sharia law for Muslims, the FPI believes that > Indonesia's economic and political system cannot be just for Muslims and that > the secular state's authority is illegitimate. According to FPI leader > Rizieq, the establishment of his group was an attempt by devout Muslims to > eliminate non-Islamic acts in society where government authorities failed to > act. > > The FPI's original platform, including raids against perceived dens of > immoral behaviors such as gambling, prostitution and drinking alcohol, was > popular among conservative Muslims. Rizieq's growth strategy for the FPI has > been to attract more conservative Muslims to the group and through various > street actions gradually erode secular society. Since its founding, however, > the FPI has demonstrated a propensity for violence. > > In 1998, the FPI participated in the riots against ethnic Chinese Indonesians > and issued a "call for jihad" against "ninja forces," which the FPI believed > were government agents who targeted Islamic scholars throughout the > archipelago's main island of Java. In 1999, it ordered the capture of > university students who took down an FPI sign that said, "Watch out! Zionism > and Communism are penetrating all aspects of our lives." In 2001, the FPI > held protests against America's invasion of Afghanistan at the US embassy in > Jakarta and tore down the embassy's barbed wire fence before being thwarted. > > Rizieq promised in 2003 to de-emphasize mass action and focus on economic > development and education to stamp out "immoral acts," but the FPI-led > violent intolerance persisted. That same year FPI members invaded a church > that had been meeting in a school's sports hall for 10 years on the grounds > that the church was attempting to spread Christianity in a public place. In > 2005, the FPI attacked the transgender "Miss Waria" contest in Jakarta. > In 2007, dozens of FPI members raided a Yogyakarta discotheque because it > hosted striptease shows. In 2008, the FPI destroyed cafes and vendors in the > Pasar Wetan area, Tasikmalaya because they were selling food during the > Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In 2010, the FPI tried to forcefully tear > down the Tiga Mojang statue in Bekasi, which depicts three women in > traditional Sundanese attire, and a dragon statue in Singkawang city during a > Buddhist celebration. > > In 2011 the FPI threatened to overthrow Yudhoyono's government if he > attempted to disband the group. This statement was released shortly after the > FPI violently attacked the Ahmadiya community, which the FPI and some > hard-line Muslims consider an heretical Islamic sect, based in Cikeusik, > Banten. The group has since continued its violent ways and means. > > Degrees of intolerance > To be sure, FPI-sponsored violence has not approached the levels orchestrated > by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a home-grown terror group held responsible for > various bombing attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202, > mostly Western tourists. But the two organizations' objectives run in > parallel: to convert Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim > population, into an Islamic state. > > While there is scant evidence that JI and FPI have coordinated operations, > the FPI has benefited from being seen as the lesser of two evils when > compared to JI. Jakarta Police Chief Nugroho Djayusman reportedly said that > the FPI is a "small, relatively insignificant group" that is "not > ideological, except insofar as it opposed gambling, prostitution and > pornography ⦠By contrast, [JI leader Abu Bakar] Bashir's foot soldiers > were a much more serious ideological group". > > Indonesia's security forces have decimated JI's leadership and the group has > failed to carry out any major attacks since 2009. In contrast, the FPI has > been able to operate with relative impunity and little interference from > Indonesian security forces. (Rizieq was sentenced to 18 months in prison in > October 2008 for inciting violence at an interfaith rally where dozens of > people were injured by FPI supporters earlier that year.) > > JI's leadership emerged mostly from the ranks of jihadis who fought against > the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and returned to Indonesia with > the al-Qaeda influenced mindset that big explosions and high-spectacle > attacks would win the support of the wider Muslim world. While major bomb > attacks, including against Western hotels situated in the capital Jakarta, > made global headlines, the violence failed to give the group a mass > following. > > The FPI's methods, on the other hand, have steered clear of terrorist > violence and have pursued their fundamentalist aims through mass protests, > intimidation and acts of thuggery. Having avoided the terrorist label, the > FPI has been able to promote itself more effectively as a morality police > force. At times it has linked up with other conservative Islamic > institutions, such as the Islamic Defenders Legion (LPI), the Indonesian > Mujahideen Council (MMI), and Kokam, the youth wing of the Muhammadiyah mass > Muslim group. > > FPI claims to receive funding only from member donations. However, it has > also reportedly received from funds from wealthy Indonesians and even the > state intelligence agency to carry out ideologically-motivated attacks, > including the attempted attack on the US embassy during the protests against > the publication of cartoons viewed as insulting to the Prophet Mohammed in > 2006. > > According to Indonesian police records, the FPI engaged in violence and > destructive behavior in 34 cases in 2010 and 2011 in West and Central Java > and North and South Sumatra, statistics that do not include Aceh, Sulawesi, > and Kalimantan where the FPI has clashed respectively with Christian, > Ahmadiya and indigenous Dayak communities. In February this year, the Dayak > community organized thousands of its members to protest at the airport when > four FPI members were scheduled to arrive to build a regional office in > Palangkaraya, Kalimantan. Outnumbered, the FPI members never disembarked the > plane. > > This year the FPI's targets have fallen into three main categories: Ahmadiya, > Shia, Buddhist, Christian and other non-Sunni Muslim places of worship; > public places deemed as non-Islamic, such as alcohol shops and stalls that > serve food during the Ramadan fasting period; and displays of Indonesia's > pre-Islamic heritage, such as dangdut music and waying puppetry. > > FPI violence and intimidation has now successfully shuttered dozens of > churches across the country. After hundreds of FPI members protested in front > of a Ahmadiya worship sites in Aceh on April 30 this year, local authorities > sealed off the buildings to Ahmadi worshippers. Three days later, 16 other > undung-undungs, or small unofficial houses of worship, in the area were also > sealed off by district officials on the pretext that they had been built > without proper permits and that locals had "complained" about them. > > This action had wider implications for the estimated 120,000 Christians in > Aceh who have been unable to obtain government permission to build new > churches and are now barred from worshipping in "unofficial" churches. In yet > another example of the FPI's rising religious intolerance, dozens of FPI > members armed with sticks and stones attacked an Ahmadiya mosque in > Singaparna, West Java during preparations for prayers in April. The FPI > justified its actions on the grounds that the Ahmadiyas had refused to stop > praying from the Koran after being warned doing so was heretical. One witness > said the police and other state officials had been notified about the FPI's > plan to attack but because of the fear of confronting the FPI did nothing to > stop them. > > Flawed role model > The FPI's rising intolerance and challenge to secular society comes at a time > when many Western leaders had hoped to hold Indonesia out as a glowing > example for the Arab Spring-inspired democratic transitions underway in the > Middle East and North Africa. > > In July 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got the ball rolling on > the Indonesia-Arab Spring connection when she stated that, "In the year of > the Arab Spring, there has never been a better moment for Indonesians to > share what they learned from their own transition to democracy with the > people of Egypt, Tunisia, and other nations that are now on that same > difficult journey." > > More recently, in April 2012, British Prime Minister David Cameron said at Al > Azhar Islamic University in Jakarta that, "If Indonesia can succeed, it can > lead the world in showing how democracy can offer an alternative to the > dead-end choice of dictatorship or extremism." > > Indeed, the uprisings seen recently in the Arab World resemble the mass > pro-democracy street demonstrations in 1998 that led to the overthrow of > Indonesia's military-backed, authoritarian Suharto regime. Indonesia's > democratic progress since has often been held up as a shining example not > only for transitional Arab states, but for the entire Muslim world. > > Freedom House, a non-governmental organization which conducts research and > advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights, rates only > Indonesia and Senegal as having "fully free" political systems among 47 > Muslim-majority countries worldwide. > > FPI's attacks on religious minorities, which constitute more than 12% of > Indonesia's estimated 242 million population, and assaults on traditional > Indonesian culture, however, is more reminiscent of the Salafist-Jihadist > strands of intolerant Islam seen in many Arab countries in the Middle East > and North Africa. > > If Indonesia is to truly serve as a democratic model for these countries, > Yudhoyono's government needs to enforce the law and bring a halt to the FPI's > rising intimidation and violence. Yudhoyono promised on July 1, without > naming the FPI, to "take firm action against groups that force their own will > and violate the constitutional rights of others." > > Two factors may motivate Yudhoyono to finally make good on that promise. As a > lame duck president, Yudhoyono may have begun to think about his legacy and > whether he will be remembered as the president who failed to rein in the FPI. > He may also be reassured by groups in Indonesia, such as the Indonesia > Without FPI Movement, which are threatening legal action against FPI if the > government does not take action. Between the violence-prone FPI and newly > established pressure groups pushing for rule by law and secularism, his > choice as a self-professed democratic reformer should be clear. > > Jacob Zenn is an international affairs analyst and legal adviser based in > Washington D.C. He specializes in comparative analysis of insurgencies in > Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Nigeria, and South America. He can be reached > at zopensource123@... > > (Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please > contact us about sales, syndication and republishing) > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
