Islamist groups behind the downfall of former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama are calling on Muslims to vote against the presidential candidate and political parties that backed the city’s first Chinese and second Christian governor.
In a big rally that shows the growing clout of the Islamists in Indonesian politics and the 2019 general elections, hundreds of thousands of conservative Muslims flocked to the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta on Sunday (Dec 2) to commemorate the second anniversary of the 2016 anti-Ahok rally that led to his imprisonment for blasphemy.