Mayoral hopeful denies link to extremists
Campaigning for Jakarta poll has been overshadowed by religious tensions
Aformer education minister in Muslim-majority Indonesia facing a run-off vote against a Christian to be Jakarta governor, yesterday denied pandering to Islamists to win support and said he could unite the capital after a divisive election.
Anies Baswedan is set to take on Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta’s first Christian and ethnic Chinese governor, in a secondround vote on April 19. Purnama got the most votes in a first round, on February 15, but not by enough to avoid a run-off, unofficial counts show.
Campaigning for the poll has been overshadowed by religious tensions, with protests led by hardline group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) against Purnama, and calls for voters to choose a Muslim.
Photographs of Baswedan meeting FPI leader Habib Rizieq were widely published in media, leading his critics to accuse him of tarnishing his reputation as a moderate Muslim.
“I think there’s a framing that is not fair here,” Baswedan said in an interview at his Jakarta home.
“If I met the Catholic community, am I then considered no longer a Muslim? If I met the Buddhist community, am I then considered no longer a Muslim?”
He said the media was giving a distorted impression of his campaign, which included meetings with a range of religious groups.
“Often times, they only see one meeting, even though I’ve gone for dozens of other meetings,” Baswedan said, sitting with a portrait of Sukarno, Indonesia’s founding father, hanging on a wall near him.
“I interact with all residents of Jakarta.” Baswedan, a respected academic who won a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States, was picked by President Joko Widodo to be education minister, but was dropped from the cabinet in a reshuffle last year.