Like with any leader, Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has his virtues and faults. But the most unfair criticism ever to be said about the governor have come from hardline “Islamic” groups such as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), who say that Ahok is unfit to lead Jakarta because he is not a Muslim.
Well, we’ve had many Muslim governors in the past, yet not one of them felt the need to build a mosque on the premises in City Hall. Ahok, the non-Muslim, did.
Today, President Joko Widodo inaugurated the mosque, named Fatahillah, just in time for Friday prayers.
“By saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I declare the Fatahillah Mosque officially open,” Jokowi said during the inauguration speech, as quoted by Kompas.
The Fatahillah Mosque was indeed Ahok’s initiative. The governor signed off on the Rp 18 billion project back in September 2015. Previously, worshippers in City Hall had to pray on a makeshift mosque consisting of carpets set out on an open space for Friday prayers.
Ahok himself personally approved the design of the mosque, and he wanted to make sure that its dome is grand enough that it’s visible from a distance.
Will Ahok’s bigoted critics now have a change of heart about the governor? We doubt it – they’ll probably just say that he only built a mosque in order to make himself more appealing to Muslim voters. There’s just no appeasing some people.
But hopefully Ahok’s actions speak much more loudly to the rest of Jakarta’s citizens than their hate speech.
