Indonesian Hajj 2021 Canceled, PKS: Even Though The President Can Call Or Face King Salman

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Bukhori Yusuf, assessed that Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Coumas was too hasty in deciding to abolish the implementation of Hajj 1442 H/2021 AD.

“The government's hasty decision to cancel the hajj is unfortunate. Actually, it doesn't matter if only a fraction of the total prospective pilgrims have to leave for our Hajj pilgrims," said Bukhori, Friday, June 4.

The PKS politician admitted that from the beginning he had consistently encouraged the Indonesian government to take productive diplomatic steps to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In fact, he has long urged President Jokowi to make a special visit to King Salman to obtain certainty of hajj for prospective Indonesian pilgrims.

According to him, the President's seriousness to directly participate in lobbying must be carried out for a long time as a form of the government's seriousness in fulfilling the rights of the Indonesian people, especially Muslims to fulfill one of the pillars of Islam.

"We regret to say that so far we have not seen any serious efforts from the government to fulfill the right of Muslims to perform Hajj," said Bukhori.

"Even though the President could have called directly, even faced King Salman directly. So what has he done so far, where is the government taking sides for Muslims?" he continued.

Moreover, the Sinovac vaccine used by Indonesia has received a license from the WHO. Because, initially the issue of hajj was hampered by the list of vaccines in Saudi Arabia.

“With this problem solved, the Indonesian government could have been a little more restrained from announcing the premature cancellation of the hajj before the deadline. Until this announcement is made, to be honest we are still not satisfied with the government's efforts in lobbying Saudi Arabia," said the Central Java legislator.

This member of the Legislative Council of the House of Representatives also believes that the opportunity to continue to dispatch prospective Indonesian Hajj pilgrims is actually still open despite the pandemic.