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Facing criticism, Gerindra backpedals on 'religious purification' pledge
Jakarta Post - June 3, 2014
"We have erased the sentence from our manifesto, because we based our party principle on Pancasila. We will uphold the law if there is discrimination against any ethnic, religion or race," he said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.
The Gerindra Party leads a coalition consisting of the Golkar Party and three Islamic parties: the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which support Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa as their candidate pair, and could command a total of 45.3 percent or 292 out of a total 560 seats at the House of Representatives.
Previously, Gerindra published a 50-page e-book called 'The Great Indonesia Movement Party Manifesto of Struggle' (Manifesto Perjuangan Partai Gerakan Indonesia Raya). On page 40, under a chapter on religious issues, the party says, "the state is also expected to guarantee the purity of religious teachings, which are acknowledged by the state, form all forms of heresy and deviation from religious teachings."
Regarding the religious stance, Gerindra's official Twitter account also responded to a question on how the party viewed religious minorities, such as Ahmadis and Mormons. The official reply was that the party would set up an institution to make those groups "give up".
The party chief patron Prabowo Subianto recently hit the headlines due to his readiness to cooperate with the hard line group Islam Defender Front (FPI).
Meanwhile, Hashim recently triggered a widespread discussion about Gerindra's complicated stance when a one and a half hour footage uploaded in YouTube by account called 'GerindraTV' on October 14 last year shows him presenting Gerindra's programs during a speech at 'USINDO Open Forum Luncheon' in Washington.
During the presentation, Hashim, who is Prabowo's younger brother and a Christian, revealed that the Agriculture Ministry, which led by PKS cadre Suswono, had dismissed its 73 Christian employees without replacement in the last nine years.
In the footage, Hashim lamented that the ministry did not have Christian employees anymore since the dismissal, saying that the government should be willing to stop such discrimination.
On Monday, when asked about the footage, Hashim did not change his view and remained in his opinion that the government is not supposed to tolerate the ministry's decision. (gda)
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