FPI leader Rizieq has agreed that his organization will not join Saturday protest march: Police

The same Islamist hardliner groups that organized the massive protests against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in November and December, including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), had announced plans to hold another protest march this Saturday before next Wednesday’s governor election. The police have refused to grant them permission for the action and said they would break it up if necessary, but FPI and the others said they would still go forward with their “healthy walk”.

But, according to the police, FPI leader Rizieq Shihab has now agreed for his organization to not join the planned protest march from the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout to Monas (directly contradicting what FPI Jakarta leader Habib “Fitsa Hats” Novel had previously said about the march still happening).

“Rizieq had agreed to change the long march into just religious activities, what Habib Novel (said about the long march action) will not happen,” Jakarta Police Chief Mochammad Iriawan said at Jakarta Police Headquarters today as quoted by Tempo.

However, Iriawan said there were still some groups that were insisting on going through with the protest march. 

Jakarta’s top cop reiterated that the police would not give permission for the march as it would disturb public order in violation of the 1998 Law on Freedom of Expression in Public. 

He said that those who wanted to participate in the Saturday action should limit themselves to purely religious activities like prayer and chanting, which the police would allow, but that the planned march would inevitably lead to political slogans being shouted.

It’s interesting that police conveyed Rizieq’s supposed agreement with their wishes, and even stranger that Rizieq would cooperate with police in a way he has never done before (he just skipped a police summons for questioning earlier this week). 

Could the fact that Rizieq is currently being investigated as a criminal suspect for insulting Pancasila, as well as being investigated for blasphemy, spreading misinformation about the rupiah and a sex scandal have anything to do with his new attitude? We’ll let you speculate.