Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s first president and founding father Soekarno, yesterday reported hardline group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) Grand Imam Habib Rizieq Shihab to the National Police’s Crime Investigation Unit for allegedly making insulting remarks about her father and Pancasila, Indonesia’s philosophical foundation.
Sukmawati, herself the chairwoman of the Indonesian Marhaenism Nationalist Party (PNI Marhaenisme), filed a report to the police for a speech Habib Rizieq made during a sermon in West Java two years ago, in which he supposedly said, “In Soekarno’s Pancasila, god is located in the butt, whereas in the Jakarta charter of the Pancasila, god is in the head.”
Sukmawati said she was only made aware of the speech in June of this year, when an associate showed her a video recording of Habib Rizieq’s sermon.
“I cannot accept it. His words were not polite, they were harsh and disrespectful,” she said, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Sukmawati believes that Habib Rizieq violated Article 154a of the Criminal Code, which forbids insult against state symbols and is punishable by up to four years in prison.
The National Police have not stated whether or not they would start an investigation based on Sukmawati’s report.
Novel Chaidir Hasan Bamukmin, secretary general of the Jakarta chapter of FPI, said Sukmawati is only trying to distract the public from the controversy surrounding Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who was reported to the police by religious groups for perceived anti-Islamic remarks.
