Along the Jalan Merdeka boulevards crowded with hundreds of thousands of protesters belonging to Muslim organizations - among them the FPI Islamic defenders front and HMI Muslim student organization - a new chapter for Jokowi's presidential mandate, and for Indonesia, has begun. A warning bell has rung. Apparently, it was a direct attack against the capital's governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, called Ahok. A man belonging to Jokowi's team. However, the core issue could be different. The presidential chair could be at stake. Joko Widodo has spent the past year trying to build new alliances to escape the tight hug of his own party (the PDI-P) that has slowed down his reforms, forced him to accept some "unpresentable" persons inside the government, made him lose supporters fed up with corruption and cronyism, while the government's fight against wrong-doers seems slowing down. Even the relation with his political mentor, Megawati Sukarnoputry, a former president and powerful daughter of the country's father, Sukarno, was at stake. Rumors whisper that frictions rose along with key-role nominations, like the Police chief. Perhaps Jokowi's competitors have been figuring out a revamping of their already faded political careers. Among them, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may have played a role even on the Friday November 4th protest. He could have helped fueling people on streets. But it is just a speculation. Even if Jokowi, at Friday's midnight press conference, after avoiding his scheduled travel to Australia, talked about the responsibility of "political actors" that took advantage of this situation to weaken Ahok as competitor in next February local election for the governor's post. A seat that can easily spin a candidate to the presidential office, as it happened for Jokowi.
On the eve of the rally it was supposed to gather a few thousands on the ground. The outcome was stunning: several hundreds of thousands were "marching" in ordered ranks. I witnessed this for eight hours, from the center of the protest; it was a peaceful event until the police decided it was the time to clear up, after the authorized time expired in the Monas area. The more violent episodes happened in the Northern district, notorious for the presence of criminality. An area where it is easy to recruit agents provocateurs or where just the presence of police in large numbers is likely to result in violent reaction. A "model" of events I have already witnessed even in the Middle East and North Africa. As it happened in Cairo when President Morsi pushed the resignation in July 2013: a huge and peaceful demonstration took place in front of the presidential palace residence (Kasr al Ithadia). However, after 8:00 pm, when the protest was almost over, ill-intentioned men arrived from a nearby district, resulting in a police reaction that left 22 people dead on the ground. Of course, this point was stressed by some media without any accurate reporting at the time.
The religious issue was heralded by most Western media - the New York Time among others - the day after the protest. These media stressed Ahok as the first Christian governor, which is true, and the key matter of the protest, they reported, is a past statement about the Quran - which is partially true. Ahok already asked for forgiveness for those sentences that were not intended to "offend". He was just underlining the political "use" of religion. But I saw tens of signboards held by protesters asking the police to "arrest" the governor. A man of Jokowi who is particularly engaged in anti-corruption political initiatives. What I didn't read on main Western outlets was a long-lasting struggle of Muslim organizations against something that could be handled simply by common sense and basic respect of common sensitivity. It was the matter of selling alcohol during Ramadan; something that pushed some radicals to raid bars and places accused of "haram" wrong-doing. Even the market promotion of a new type of beer completely produced in Indonesia could not find a worst time to be launched (an industry that already exists in the country). It was a test of lack of wisdom. What was the problem in finding a deal, in a Muslim country, to respect some basic principle of civil coexistence? On one side, better care is needed in managing religious matters; on the other, tighter control is needed on Muslim radical sin-offs.
Maybe in some international chancelleries and economic "globalized" districts the near collapse of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the foreseeable sweeping of al-Baghdadi accomplishes in Syria has caused some misunderstanding. The embedded outcomes –that is, the fading of Saudi Arabia's power, Wahabi foundation and Qatar's ambiguous role in MENA countries - let them think that the “Islam file” could be put in the "Solved" drawer soon. This would be wrong. The influence these international power centers exert on several countries - not only over Indonesia - drove them to bad policies several times, because of proposing/imposing a one-fit-all style of life, that could work when it enhances the level of the middle class in emerging countries, fostering a more free and democratic labor market, but it causes troubles when it has to manage with faith and religious beliefs. And it is quite rough when dealing with Muslims.
The main problem of an almost out of control globalization is that it needs, as counterbalance, a very efficient, high grade morality political elite that, of course, can only mirror the level of society. The breaking down of barriers, allowing for the globalization of capital, the movement of goods, information, crime, and terrorism, but not of the political and judicial institutions whose basis is national sovereignty is its main fragility, as stressed by Zygmunt Bauman. The USA, which knows this model because it was the main byproduct of the cold war victory, are trying to promote all around the world local political and economic behavior that could help to deal with the worst aspect of these dynamics. Sometimes, it uses some not-so-smart proxy advisers. And even in the USA, something went wrong when Americans and their suffering middle class members decided to bring Donald Trump to the White House.
Indonesia is in the center of this scenario because it's in Asia, because it's a big Muslim country, because it's the belt/barrier of South China Sea, with China and USA close to clash, because it's a model that could work for regional stability.
The mass protest of November 4th, out of any political speculations, stated that government has to show a quick reaction, not in terms of repressive force but in a matter of the democracy, legitimacy and capacity to deal with Muslim issues.
