Photo by Beawiharta/Reuters
The coalition of hardline Islamists, fundamentalists, and religious conservatives who successfully ousted former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama in a wave of sectarian, and racially-tinged protests is on the verge of being torn apart by a fight over who owns the rights to three little numbers: 212.The numbers, which refer to the date of the first anti-Ahok rally in Jakarta, 2-12-2016, has since been used as a catch-all to describe the entire movement, and for good reason. At the start of the protests, a lot of the groups central to getting the movement off the ground didn't exactly have the best reputations in Indonesia. For years, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), one of the groups behind the protests, made headlines for all the wrong reasons—inciting a riot, throwing feces at police, killing a woman during a vigilante raid on "immoral" places in Central Java, forcing non-Sunni mosques and Christian churches in West Java to shut down.So 212 was a way to rebrand the entire Islamist fringe in Indonesia, draping it in the cloth of new political movement built on allegations that Ahok, then the governor, had committed blasphemy by questioning an interpretation of Islamic texts favored by Islamists that said Muslims couldn't be "ruled" by a non-Muslim. Fast-forward nearly two years, and the numbers 212 are still popular enough to inspire a failed political party (the 212 Sharia Party), a minimart (212Mart), and Sharia co-op (Koperasi Syariah 212).
Watch: Trials and Tribulations on the Streets of Jakarta
But only one of those things is owned by anyone with connections to the actual 212 group. GNPF Majelis Ulama Indonesia (GNPF MUI)—that's what the 212 group called itself at the time—actually tried to trademark the numbers because it wanted to "promote the Muslim economy," or, in plain speak, they thought they could make some money off what was, at the time, a protest movement that was totally over (because it won).So the invented Koperasi Syariah 212 and told everyone else with 212 in their name to join the co-op, and pay them some money, or face legal action.The problem is that the man who actually thought of the numbers is now persona non-grata amongst his pals in GNPF Ulama, as it's now called. Kapitra Ampera, the former lawyer for FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab, recently broke with the 212 crowd and joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the same political party that backed Ahok—and the president—in the election. That's basically crossing over to the enemy as far as the GNPF Ulama is concerned, and Novel Bakmumin, the chairman of the affiliated 212 Brotherhood, said that Kapitra was no longer welcome at GNPF Ulama gatherings."What he did contradicts our belief,” Novel told local media.He also claimed that Kapitra was no longer Habib Rizieq's lawyer (the FPI leader is currently living in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia), a statement that Kapitra has denied. Kapitra then told the press that he plans to continue on with all his legal duties, including securing the trademark for 212 himself.Just think of the irony of what this all means for a second. If Kapitra is able to get the trademark for 212, a movement that successfully polarized the nation with a campaign that attacked religious and ethnic minorities alike for months on end, then 212 ends up in the hands of a man who is now a member of the very political party the movement formed to protest against—which is as good as sign as any that things are going to get real weird as we enter the presidential season.
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Watch: Trials and Tribulations on the Streets of Jakarta
But only one of those things is owned by anyone with connections to the actual 212 group. GNPF Majelis Ulama Indonesia (GNPF MUI)—that's what the 212 group called itself at the time—actually tried to trademark the numbers because it wanted to "promote the Muslim economy," or, in plain speak, they thought they could make some money off what was, at the time, a protest movement that was totally over (because it won).So the invented Koperasi Syariah 212 and told everyone else with 212 in their name to join the co-op, and pay them some money, or face legal action.The problem is that the man who actually thought of the numbers is now persona non-grata amongst his pals in GNPF Ulama, as it's now called. Kapitra Ampera, the former lawyer for FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab, recently broke with the 212 crowd and joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the same political party that backed Ahok—and the president—in the election. That's basically crossing over to the enemy as far as the GNPF Ulama is concerned, and Novel Bakmumin, the chairman of the affiliated 212 Brotherhood, said that Kapitra was no longer welcome at GNPF Ulama gatherings."What he did contradicts our belief,” Novel told local media.He also claimed that Kapitra was no longer Habib Rizieq's lawyer (the FPI leader is currently living in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia), a statement that Kapitra has denied. Kapitra then told the press that he plans to continue on with all his legal duties, including securing the trademark for 212 himself.Just think of the irony of what this all means for a second. If Kapitra is able to get the trademark for 212, a movement that successfully polarized the nation with a campaign that attacked religious and ethnic minorities alike for months on end, then 212 ends up in the hands of a man who is now a member of the very political party the movement formed to protest against—which is as good as sign as any that things are going to get real weird as we enter the presidential season.