Yesterday’s session of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja’s blasphemy trial featured a shocking accusation by Ahok’s legal team that former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had called the head of Indonesia’s top clerical body, Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairperson Ma’ruf Amin, and asked him to have MUI issue the fatwa declaring that Ahok had committed blasphemy during his speech in the Thousand Islands.
When Ma’ruf was questioned about the call in court yesterday by one of Ahok’s lawyers, Humphrey Djemat, Ma’ruf repeatedly denied that it had taken place. Humphrey then told the MUI chairman that he would present evidence to the court proving that the call had taken place as he said.
That proof has yet to be revealed (Humphrey said he is waiting to present it to the trial judges before revealing it to the public) but already the accusation and its implications have sent shockwaves through the political sphere since it would confirm conspiracy theories that SBY had engineered the blasphemy fatwa, protests and trial of Ahok in order to help his son, Agus Yudhoyono, win the Jakarta Governor’s election.
SBY held a press conference today in order to address and deny the accusation. But the odd nature of what SBY had to say left observers with even more questions (SBY did not take any questions from the media after the press con).
Much of what the former president focused on was the possibility that his phone conversation with Ma’ruf had been recorded as the result of illegal wiretapping without a proper court order.
SBY likened it to the Watergate scandal in the United States, in which President Richard Nixon was ultimately forced to resign over his part in a plot which included illegally wiretapping his political enemies.
“Nixon’s camp tapped the lines of his political opponents also during the presidential campaign period. Nixon was elected, but [his plot was] uncovered, the wiretapping, taping, spying, and so until Nixon resigned, because otherwise he would have been impeached,” SBY said as quoted by Tempo.
The former president and current head of the Democratic Party reiterated the point about the illegality of a wiretap being used against him without a court order, and also mentioned previous instances in which there were suspicions that his phone had been tapped.
SBY said that if a recording or transcript of his call with Ma’ruf had been obtained by Ahok and his legal team, then President Joko Widodo’s government would have to be responsible for the illegal surveillance. He mentioned more than once that he wanted to speak with Jokowi about this to get an explanation as well as other vicious rumors he believed his administration had spread about him. But the former president then alluded to forces that were preventing him from meeting with the president.
All of SBY’s talk about the illegality of wiretapping would almost seem to be an admission that the call between him and Ma’ruf did, in fact, take place as Ahok’s lawyer said. And indeed, SBY admitted that a call between the two of them took place on the morning of October 6 but he also said the conversation had not been related to Ma’ruf’s duties as the head of MUI and that they had not discussed the fatwa against Ahok
“There is no connection with the case of Pak Ahok, with the tasks of MUI, with the task of issuing a fatwa,” SBY said as quoted by Kompas. He added that, as a body, MUI should clarify whether he had pressured them to issue the fatwa.
That would appear to be a fairly strong denial. However, SBY did not mention reporting Ahok or his lawyers to the police for defamation, something which one might expect him to do if he was certain that the supposedly illegally wiretapped phone conversation did not pertain to the fatwa whatsoever.
At any rate, all of the pressure is now on Ahok and his legal team to present their proof that the SBY-Ma’ruf conversation took place as they said it did. If they can’t, then Ahok’s career is likely over and it is likely he could face even more prison time than he currently does in his blasphemy case.
But, if they can prove the conversation took place and that SBY did ask for the fatwa, then the former president will have to pin his defense on the possibility that their proof was illegally obtained. And it that’s the case, well, there’s no telling how bad the fallout for both sides could be…
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