REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- Vice President Jusuf Kalla explained discrimination played no part in the dynamics of Jakarta gubernatorial election and the detention of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok).
He said it demonstrated a form of democracy and a proof that the legal process was rolling without the intervention of any party.
Kalla's explanation was referring to the concern of several international organizations regarding the guilty verdict and two-year jail term handed down to Ahok in the blasphemy case.
Kalla delivered the statement while addressing some 150 attendees comprising diplomats, academics, religious figures, and foreign and Indonesian students during his public discourse at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies of Oxford University in Oxford City, the UK, on Thursday.
Also read: Foreign ministry responds to international concerns on Ahok conviction
Furthermore, Kalla remarked the what happened to Ahok were related to democracy and the law. The judges found him guilty. Therefore, Ahok is jailed.
"Indonesia has the law on blasphemy as other countries have their own regulation to respect others," he reiterated.
On the other hand, Kalla revealed majority of Ahok's voters are Muslims. Of the 2.3 million people who vote for Ahok, about 400 thousand are Christian.
"It means the majority of the voters are Muslims so it was not religious discrimination. It's democracy," he said to answer one of the student.
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