“The police are being seemingly more strict,” he said, “but they will allow less latitude towards vigilante groups.”
Basuki (no relation to the former governor) said that one way for the government to resist hard-line Islamist groups was to take over the role of enforcing Islamic behavioral norms from vigilantes. Purnama’s sentence on appeal or to extend to him whatever form of clemency may be available under Indonesian law, so that he may be released from prison immediately,” three independent United Nations experts said in a statement on Monday. The Indonesian government, under the leadership of its pluralist president, Joko Widodo, has been engaged in political battles with hard-line Islamist factions that recently succeeded in getting a close presidential ally, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta’s Christian governor, imprisoned on blasphemy charges. “The government is trying to co-opt the religious narrative,” he said. Tobias Basuki, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said the police appeared to be formally taking on a role that had previously been held by hard-line Islamist groups.
