Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) the 2020-2025 management period was officially announced, Wednesday (26/11) night. A number of new names appeared, old faces disappeared with the announcement Miftachul Akhyar as General Chair of the MUI for the 2020-2025 period.
For example, the name Din Syamsuddin and a number of identical ulama were associated with the 212 Action being expelled from management. The name Din was shifted by Ma’ruf Amin. The Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia is currently holding the position of Chairman of the MUI Advisory Council.
From the management structure that was opened to the public, apart from the missing Din’s name, the names of former treasurer Yusuf Muhammad Martak, former wasekjen Tengku Zulkarnain, and former secretary of Wantim Bachtiar Nasir also disappeared. The four of them are known as figures who have harshly criticized the government. Din is active in the Coalition for the Action to Save Indonesia (WE), and the last three names are leaders of the 212 Action.
University of Al-Azhar Indonesia political observer Ujang Komarudin assessed that Ma’ruf Amin’s domination and strength in MUI was very obvious. Opening up the strong suspicion of government interference in the umbrella of the ulama.
“You could say that there was some kind of interference because Ma’ruf Amin is the vice president. Of course the government wants the ulama council to be under control. So that its criticism will disappear and be controlled,” said Ujang to CNNIndonesia.com, Friday (27/11).
As is known, it has been approximately two years since Ma’ruf participated in power politics. At the end of 2018, he ran for vice president along with the incumbent Joko Widodo. At that time, he was holding the position of Rais Aam PBNU and Chairman of the MUI. He left his position at PBNU, but not with a position at MUI.
Ma’ruf, at this year’s MUI National Conference, led the Formation Team which consisted of 17 ulama. This team has the authority to determine who will be at the helm of MUI, including the general chairman of the MUI. Ujang argues that this scenario is similar to what happened in the DPR RI. The government camp embraced as many coalition partners as possible and eliminated those that were discordant.
Ujang said MUI was very strategic for the government. Because this mass organization collects various Islamic mass organizations in one place. Meanwhile, the government has a problem with the right-wing Islamic group which Rizieq Shihab has orchestrated. By cooperating with MUI, he said, the government’s position would certainly be safer.
“If the MUI is not held, it will be dangerous. The proof was in the days of Mr. Ma’ruf Amin during the Ahok demonstration, MUI continued to raise it,” he said.
Separately, LIPI political researcher Siti Zuhro assessed that there was an effort to uniform the votes in MUI. He compared it to the way the New Order government reached out to community groups.
Siti sees that there are efforts by the government supporters to equalize the voice among the people. One of them is at MUI. Siti called it state coorporatism.
“It must get out of state coorporatism. All is co-opted, all existing power is co-opted, that’s the New Order. This is the Reform Order that should not be, “said Siti to CNNIndonesia.com, Friday (27/11).
He argued that groups with different views should not be expelled from the MUI management. He explained that MUI was formed to accommodate various Islamic mass organizations.
Even so, Siti assessed that efforts to get rid of discordant votes in MUI were not an absolute victory for the government supporters. Siti reminded that Indonesia is not only determined by the elite.
“In my opinion, it is naive to impose a certain institutional organization with such uniformity. Our democracy is participatory, no longer representative. Society is no longer represented by a number of groups,” said Siti.
(dhf / ain)
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