At the end of our report yesterday, we asked how many people you think would show up for today’s “Aksi Bela Ulama 96” (Action to Defend Clerics 96 – the number signifying today’s date) being organizated by Alumni Presidium 212 (the name given to the group of people who “graduated” from previous protests – admittedly huge in numbers – demanding that former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama be jailed for blasphemy).
Well, it appears that the number is closer to the date digits (212, 96, 411) they have been calling their rallies, instead of somewhere in the thousands or millions.
This is an aerial view of the rally taken by Kumparan just outside Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque earlier this afternoon:
Massa aksi bela ulama 96 yang tak seramai sebelumnya. https://t.co/Il8k6J0N1h pic.twitter.com/wf5xUOfvfH
— kumparan (@kumparan) June 9, 2017
Compared to the estimated 200,000 who participated in the 212 (Dec 12) anti-Ahok rally, why did so few 212 ‘alumni’ show their face amongst this embarrassingly low turnout?
To begin with, management of Istiqlal Mosque, yesterday denied Alumni Presidium 212’s request to stage their rally on the mosque’s grounds, saying that the mosque is holding a Ramadan sermon in the afternoon.
Ironically, the leader of the alumni, Ansufri Idrus Sambo, regrets the mosque’s decision, saying that the sermon (a pure act of worship with no political pretenses, mind) could have easily been rescheduled to accommodate today’s rally.
“Why can’t we go inside? This is more important, an agenda to defend ulemas, to defend Islam. The sermon can be moved to later,” Ansufri told Detik.
(Detik noted that around 100 people showed up for the rally.)
Many are also speculating that the low turnout is due to the fact that the so-called cleric the rally was primarily defending was Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab, who is obviously not attending since he’s still in Saudi Arabia hiding from Indonesian authorities after they named him a suspect in a high-profile, highly embarrassing pornography case.
And then, of course, there’s the possibility that there was no money to organize these rallies anymore, especially since there was no political advantage to funding today’s rally, unlike the previous rallies against Ahok.
That said, today’s rally may still see an increase in numbers. Alumni Presidium 212 said they’re not backing down and will continue their action well into the evening (we wonder if they’d count regular mosque goers, many of whom usually flock to Istiqlal to break their fast and perform Ramadan Taraweh prayers, as participants of the rally).
