Members of the Islamic Defenders Front in a protest against Ahmadiyah, a minority Muslim group in Indonesia. Photo by Ed Wray/ Associated Press
The days are numbered for Indonesia's notorious hardline Islamist mass organisation, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), unless it extends its permit to exist legally in the country.In Indonesia, mass organisations are required to be registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs. FPI's permit has allowed the organisation to be active since June 20, 2014, but it will expire on June 20 this year. Three days ago, an online petition demanding the ministry to refuse FPI's permit renewal was set up on Change.org. At the time of writing, the petition has collected over 300,000 signatures.“With the FPI’s license about to expire, let’s unite against the extension of their license,” Ira Bisyir, the author of the petition, wrote on the petition. "The organisation is a radical group, supporter of violence, and a supporter of the HTI [the Indonesia chapter of the far-right Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir].”
Watch: Trials and Tribulations on the Streets of Jakarta
SKT renewal is no quick process—all documents have to be submitted to the ministry's Director-General of Politics and General Governance to have the group's validity examined, before they're passed on to the minister for approval. But to date, there's no record of the ministry having rejected any mass organisation's renewal application. As of August 2017, there were 344,099 active mass organisations in Indonesia.Now the question is, could this petition affect anything at all? Legal observers say that the effort of these online activists—or "clicktivists"—may just go to waste after all, because petitions rarely gain traction in Indonesia.A researcher from the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), Erasmus Napitulu, told VICE that in democratic nations, all parties must be given the freedom to organise. The government, he said, should specify a range of what civil organisations are permitted or not permitted to do. This would mean that the petition against the renewal of the FPI’s license is actually dangerous, because it could potentially encourage the government to disband other civil organisations, including those with a progressive agenda like human rights groups and labor unions.Meanwhile, Margato Kamis, a state administration legal expert at Khairun Ternatem University said that it’s better for Indonesians when FPI continues to be registered as a civil organisation in the eyes of the government so it can continue to monitor the group’s actions. He also said that FPI could never truly be dismantled, even if the government rejected its renewal application.“Formally, they might no longer exist, but the group’s essence may stay alive in society. How do you disband that?” Margarito told VICE.
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HTI—short for Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia—is an organisation outlawed by the Indonesian government in 2017 as per President Joko Widodo's decision, which was later bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling. The HTI, with its Islamic caliphate ideology, is seen as subversive to the legitimate government and taking advantage of democratic principles to spread their efforts of treason. The FPI and HTI have ideological differences, but many Indonesians consider them equally radicalized.FPI is most known for its central role in organising protests that led to the arrest, and consequently imprisonment, of former Jakarta governor Basuku Tjahja Purnama, a Christian man of Chinese descent, on blasphemy charges.In response to the initial petition calling for FPI’s disbandment, a counter-petition in support of an extension of the organisation’s license has emerged on the same platform. So far, it's gained over 140,000 signatures.All permits for mass organisations are issued in the form of a Certification of Registration (SKT), which must be renewed every five years.Muhsin bin Zaid Alattas, the leader of the group'sJakarta chapter, said on Wednesday that FPI will renew its SKT as soon as possible. "Civil organisations must obey the regulations placed upon them in Indonesia, so we must renew our license,” he told BBC Indonesia.
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Watch: Trials and Tribulations on the Streets of Jakarta
SKT renewal is no quick process—all documents have to be submitted to the ministry's Director-General of Politics and General Governance to have the group's validity examined, before they're passed on to the minister for approval. But to date, there's no record of the ministry having rejected any mass organisation's renewal application. As of August 2017, there were 344,099 active mass organisations in Indonesia.Now the question is, could this petition affect anything at all? Legal observers say that the effort of these online activists—or "clicktivists"—may just go to waste after all, because petitions rarely gain traction in Indonesia.A researcher from the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), Erasmus Napitulu, told VICE that in democratic nations, all parties must be given the freedom to organise. The government, he said, should specify a range of what civil organisations are permitted or not permitted to do. This would mean that the petition against the renewal of the FPI’s license is actually dangerous, because it could potentially encourage the government to disband other civil organisations, including those with a progressive agenda like human rights groups and labor unions.Meanwhile, Margato Kamis, a state administration legal expert at Khairun Ternatem University said that it’s better for Indonesians when FPI continues to be registered as a civil organisation in the eyes of the government so it can continue to monitor the group’s actions. He also said that FPI could never truly be dismantled, even if the government rejected its renewal application.
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In Indonesia, there is nothing in place to guarantee the government will respond to a petition, no matter how many signatures it collects. This is unlike places like the United States, where the government is obligated to respond to any petition that's able to garner at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days.Despite this, some petitions in Indonesia have been successful in swaying public opinion and lawmakers' decisions in the past. According to local media Tirto, six petitions successfully influenced public policy in 2016. One of them was a call for President Joko Widodo to refuse to revise policy on remission and leniency for corruptors last August, and he did just that in the end.Soedarmo, Director General of Politics and Public Government of the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the media that online petitions aside, the ministry will take other factors into consideration regarding FPI's permit renewal.So far, only two radical mass organisations have been disbanded under Jokowi's administration. Hizb ut-Tahrir was banned in 2017, and ISIS-linked Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in 2018.This isn't the first time that Indonesians have publicly expressed its criticism towards FPI. The presence of the group, which was established in August 1998, has been publicly rejected in several regions in Indonesia, including Sumatra and Bali. Last July, hundreds of young people Dayak in Tarakan, North Kalimantan, blocked the arrival gate of Juwata International Airport when FPI leaders came to the city to attend the inauguration of its Tarakan City chapter.Many Indonesians believe that the organisation is a threat to the country's pluralism. Setara Institute, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for democracy and human rights, has noted that FPI was the main actor in 16 acts of violence against religious freedom in 2016 alone. According to police data, the group was also responsible for 107 acts of violence between 2007 and 2010.Adi Renaldi is a staff writer at VICE Indonesia. Hewrites about hoaxes, terrorism, and other national security issues. Follow Adi on Instagram.
