DT e-Paper, Friday, Decdember 2, 2016

World
Blasphemy case ignites Indonesia
• Reuters, Jakarta
When Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama had some of the capital’s
sprawling slums levelled this
spring, Muslim groups including the
hardline “Islamic Defenders Front”
(FPI) moved in quickly to help some
of the city’s poorest residents.
The offer of food, shelter,
clothes and money was a lifeline
to the struggling families. But religious
conservatives, who had long
opposed Purnama because he was
a Christian, did not stop there.
After a video circulated in October
of Purnama, also known as
“Ahok”, making comments that
some Muslims said insulted the
Koran, the FPI went into overdrive.
It called for his arrest, bombarded
its social media pages with
fiery messages and rallied some
150,000 protesters to the streets
of the capital earlier this month.
With another mass protest slated
for December 2, the FPI has
helped trigger a crisis that has
engulfed President Joko Widodo,
seen as a close ally of Purnama,
and damaged the hitherto popular
governor’s hopes of re-election in
a ballot in February.
The FPI, which divides opinion
in Indonesia, has also seized the
political agenda, using the blasphemy
scandal to get people on to
the streets and pushing a message
of intolerance in a Muslim-dominated
country where hardline
posturing rarely makes waves.
The FPI said it wants Friday’s
demonstration to be peaceful, but
minorities, including Christians
and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community are fearful
of the group.
Around 50 FPI members
barged into a Jakarta apartment
at the weekend to break up what
they said was a gay sex party. The
group has vowed to continue to
target the LGBT community.
Social media ‘jihad’
Purnama has been in the Islamists’
sights for years.
The FPI believes a Christian, who
is also ethnic Chinese, should not
hold the powerful position of running
the city of 10 million people.
The group, which says it has
about five million members, has
a history of harassing minorities.
In recent years, they have
forced the closure of churches and
mosques run by non-Sunni Muslims,
raided bars, and caused the
cancellation of a 2012 Lady Gaga
concert to “protect Indonesians
from sin”.
When some Jakarta slums were
razed in March and April, the FPI
encouraged those evicted to form
small “pop-up” groups to demonstrate
against clearances, Bamukmin
said. Some later joined the
November 4 protest.
In September, when the case of
alleged blasphemy first surfaced,
FPI leaders ratcheted up their
rhetoric against the governor, calling
for his arrest and preaching
in mosques that “blasphemy is
non-negotiable”.
The group also began publishing
posts hourly, as opposed to
two or three times a day, on Facebook,
Twitter and in newsletters
to express its outrage.
Their online feeds are now
crammed with anti-Purnama
traffic, as well as some against
Widodo himself, and many posts
are being liked, re-posted or commented
on thousands of times. •
Italy’s right-wing sees referendum as vote against EU
• Reuters, Rome
ITALY’S CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM
Government-proposed reforms are aimed at transforming the current
system, which critics say have caused chronic political instability
A weakened Senate
Today
Italy’s Chamber of Deputies
and its Senate have equal
rights and powers to pass laws
Less federalism
The reforms aim to trim
the powers of the 15
regions, particularly
in energy policy,
strategic infrastructure
and the environment
Abolish one layer
of administration
Italy’s 110 provinces
would simply disappear
A ‘No’ vote in Sunday’s referendum
on constitutional reform
would be a slap in the face to Europe,
said the head of the rightist
Northern League, pledging to pull
Italy from the euro if he wins the
next national elections.
Matteo Salvini, who has said he
would run for prime minister, has
helped lead the campaign against
the government’s planned overhaul
of the constitution, saying
it does not address Italy’s main
problems.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
says his reform will boost political
stability in a country that has had
63 governments since 1948, and
has promised to resign if he loses
the vote.
Opinion polls suggest that he is
set for defeat.
In an interview Salvini said that
if the ‘No’ camp won, Italy should
hold elections in 2017, a year
ahead of schedule.
“This ‘No’ vote will also be a
‘No’ vote against the rules and
regulations of Europe, which have
been disastrous for Italy,” Salvini
said, adding that EU austerity
measures had shredded the Italian
economy.
EU leaders, including European
Commission President Jean-
Claude Juncker and German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble,
have thrown their weight behind
Renzi, fearful that his resignation
might unleash political and
economic turmoil.
The 43-year-old Salvini said Europe
had let Italy down, limiting
its ability to salvage its debt-laden
banks and doing little to help it
deal with an influx of almost half
a million migrants over the past
three years.
A vocal supporter of US president-elect
Donald Trump and a
fierce critic of mass immigration,
Salvini said he would place quitting
the single euro currency at the
heart of his election manifesto.
A survey published by La Stampa
newspaper last week said 71%
An Indonesian flag is seen during a protest by Muslim groups against Jakarta’s
Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama in Jakarta, Indonesia on November 4 REUTERS
The
reforms
in five
points
Proposed reforms
Cut the number of senators from 315 to 100
Drastically limit the kinds of laws the Senate can pass
Strip the Senate of the power to launch no-confidence votes
Speed up leglisative process
The reforms enable the government
to require deputies to decide quickly
on certain draft laws
Larger majority required
to elect a head of state
The president has little power
but can play a key role in mediating
crises. Election to the post would
no longer be decided by simple majority
of Italians thought leaving the
euro would make Italy’s fragile
economy even worse, but Salvini
dismissed the polls and said he
was working with economists on a
plan for withdrawal.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has
staked his future on the reforms.
He says he will step down
if the proposals are rejected
in Sunday’s referendum
Leaving the North
The Northern League is the third
largest political force in Italy, garnering
support of around 13 percent
against roughly 30% for both
Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) and
the anti-system 5-Star Movement,
which is also opposed to the euro.
The once dominant Forza Italia
(Go Italy) party of former premier
Silvio Berlusconi lies just behind the
Northern League. Analysts say centre-right
parties would have an outside
chance of victory if they could
create a united front, as in the past.
Berlusconi, who turned 80 this
year and survived major heart surgery,
has said he wants to return
to front line politics at the head
of the centre-right, challenging
Salvini for supremacy. He has also
adopted a eurosceptic stance, saying
that Italy should introduce a
second currency to run alongside
the euro.
The bearded Salvini said he
wanted to see primary elections
for the centre-right, like those that
have just anointed Francois Fillon
as France’s conservative presidential
candidate. •
9
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2016
USA
Trump reportedly praises
Pakistan’s ‘terrific’ PM
DT
President-elect Donald Trump
offered to help solve Pakistan’s
problems and praised Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif as a “terrific guy”
in the first call between the two
men, the Pakistani leader’s office
said. Historical allies in the region,
Islamabad and Washington have
seen relations sour in recent years
over US accusations that Pakistan
shelters Islamist militants. REUTERS
THE AMERICAS
Audio tape: Colombia
plane ran out of fuel
The pilot of a charter plane
carrying a Brazilian football team
radioed frantically that he was out
of fuel minutes before slamming
into a hillside near Medellin with
77 people on board. An audio
tape aired by the Colombian
media showed that the pilot of the
LAMIA airlines BAe146 radioed
the control tower Monday night
seeking priority to land because of
a fuel problem. REUTERS
UK
EU immigration surged
before Brexit
A record 284,000 EU citizens
arrived in UK in the year to June
when the Brexit referendum was
held, with a particularly high
number coming from Romania and
Bulgaria, official data showed on
Thursday. There has also been a
sharp increase in applications for
citizenship by EU migrants since
the Brexit vote, while Ireland said
there had been a spike in Britons
with Irish ancestry getting passports.
AFP
EUROPE
Crimea tensions mount
over Ukraine missile drill
Ukraine on Thursday unleashed
a barrage of missile tests near
Russian-annexed Crimea in a show
of strength and defiance bound
to irritate Moscow. The two-day
military drills near the Black Sea
peninsula are a first for the former
Soviet republic and a sign that it is
regaining assertiveness in the face
of its arch-foe Russia. AFP
AFRICA
Nigeria joins AU campaign
to end child marriage
Women’s rights activists on
Wednesday urged Nigeria to accelerate
efforts to end child marriage
after it joined an African Union (AU)
campaign to eliminate the practice.
Nigeria launched this week a
nationwide drive to end child marriage
by pushing for policies that
protect girls’ rights and help the
justice system to punish perpetrators,
becoming the 16th country to
join the AU’s campaign. REUTERS