Claiming Call from JK, PSI's Ahmad Ali Ready to Mediate GAMKI Report

The daily chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), Ahmad Ali, claims he is ready to act as a mediator regarding the report of an alleged religious blasphemy case against the 10th and 12th Vice President, Jusuf Kalla (JK). The case was reported by the General Chairman of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement (GAMKI), Sahat Martin Philip Sinurat, to the Metro Jaya Police recently. Ahmad Ali stated that JK had contacted him about the report. “Yesterday, Mr Jusuf Kalla called me, and inshallah, in the near future, we will hold a mediation meeting,” said Ahmad Ali after meeting Jokowi in Sumber, Solo, Central Java, on Thursday (16/4). Ahmad Ali claims to have close relations with both JK and Sahat. He and JK are both executives of the Indonesian Mosque Council. Meanwhile, Sahat is one of PSI’s executives. “Mas Sahat is the Head of the Politics Division in PSI,” he said. “Sahat is my younger brother, Mr JK is my elder brother. Inshallah, I will try my utmost to bring them together, to mediate this so that this commotion can end,” he added. The former National Democrat Party (Nasdem) cadre said the mediation is hoped to quell the polemic arising from the case. “If there is a mistaken party, they can apologise, so that disputes and misunderstandings are not continuously stirred up,” he said. “The nation’s energy is drained just dealing with trivial matters like that,” he continued. Furthermore, he emphasised that PSI is in no way involved in Sahat’s report. Sahat reported JK as GAMKI Chairman, not as a PSI cadre. PSI General Chairman, Kaesang Pangarep, even urged PSI cadres to ignore JK’s statement made several months ago. “On Monday, I led a meeting with the General Chairman to remind them not to (respond to JK’s statement),” he said. Nevertheless, he still respects GAMKI’s decision to report JK to the Metro Jaya Police. According to him, GAMKI has the right to take JK’s statement to court legally. “On the other hand, we must also respect that before PSI existed, those organisations were already there. So, we must respect their personal rights,” he said.