Joko Widodo pledges to tackle extremism, wealth distribution
jakarta — Indonesia’s president said on Wednesday the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country needed to pull together to meet the threat of extremism and safeguard a constitution that enshrines religious freedom and diversity.
In an address to parliament ahead of Thursday’s independence day, President Joko Widodo peppered his speeches with references to the need to address inequality in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and tackle the threat of radicalism.
Indonesian police have tightened security ahead of the independence day holiday and on Tuesday arrested five suspected Islamist militants and seized chemicals they said were being used to make bombs for attacks on the presidential palace.
Religious tension in Indonesia has soared since late last year after Islamist-led rallies saw Jakarta’s then governor, a member of a so-called double minority who is ethnic Chinese and Christian, put on trial during city elections over claims he insulted the Holy Quran. “We want to work together not only in creating an equitable economy, but also in ideological, political, social and cultural development,” said Widodo.
“In the field of ideology, we have to strengthen our national consensus in safeguarding Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, the unity of the Republic of Indonesia and ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ (unity in diversity),” he said.
Pancasila is Indonesia’s state ideology, which includes belief in God, unity, social justice and democracy, and which enshrines religious diversity in an officially secular system.
But there are worries about growing intolerance undermining a tradition of moderate Islam in a country where Muslims form about 85 per cent of the population, alongside substantial Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and other minorities.
In April, the then Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ally of Widodo, lost the bitterly fought city election to a Muslim rival and was later jailed for blasphemy, a sentence rights groups and international bodies condemned as unfair and politicised. —