Formation Of The Special Committee For Hajj Questionnaires: Evaluation Of Political Revenge Landed?

JAKARTA The formation of the Special Committee (Pansus) for Hajj Angket by the House of Representatives (DPR) aims to evaluate so that the implementation of Hajj in the following years becomes better. However, a number of observers assess the special committee for Hajj is thick with a political aroma.

The Indonesian House of Representatives has approved the formation of the Hajj special committee in the 21st plenary session of trial V, on July 9, 2024. It was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Muhaimin Iskandar who knocked the hammer agreeing after asking the court participants.

"Now is the time for us to ask the council hearing whether the formation and composition of the membership names of the special committee for Hajj supervision as proposed can we agree?" asked Muhaimin, who is also the Chair of the 2024 Hajj Supervisory Team.

The question was answered 'approved' by the session participants who attended. Cak Imin explained, the members of the 2024 Hajj Special Committee were filled by 30 members of the DPR. The composition of the Hajj Special Committee contains seven members from PDIP, while four each from Golkar and Gerindra. PKB, Nasdem, Democrats, PKS each have three people. Two others from PAN and one from PPP.

But on the other hand, the Hajj Special Committee is considered to have a strong political nuance, even considered an event to resolve personal grudges during the 2024 Presidential Election.

"They (Gus Imin and Gus Yaqut) come from the womb of the same organization, namely Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). However, in the 2024 election, both of them have different political choices and tend to be opposite," said the Executive Director of the Indopol Survey and Consultant Institute, Ratno Sulistiyanto in his statement.

The DPR's Hajj supervisory team led directly by Muhaimin Iskandar found several concerning problems that were repeated in each Hajj event in the Holy Land. Starting from the problem of accommodation, catering, tents, access to water and toilets, health, and transportation that not only harms regular pilgrims, but also special Hajj pilgrims.

In addition, the problem of illegal pilgrims who do not use official Hajj visas is also in the spotlight. Not a few congregants who use overstay Umrah, visit visas, or pilgrimage visas that violate the rules.

One of the main problems in organizing this year's Hajj is the addition of a quota of 20,000 new pilgrims given by the Government of Saudi Arabia.

However, a member of the House of Representatives' Hajj team, Wisnu Wijaya, said that there were allegations of misuse of additional hajj quotas by the Ministry of Religion led by Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, which was indicated to have violated Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah.

Citing the official website of the DPR, in a Panja meeting related to the determination of the costs for organizing the Hajj (BPH) 1445 h/2024 M together with the Minister of Religion on November 27, 2023, agreed on the Indonesian Hajj quota of 241,000 pilgrims, with details of the regular Hajj pilgrims as many as 221,720 people and Hajj pilgrims plus 19,280 people.

"However, in the House of Representatives Commission VIII Hearing Meeting with the Director General of Hajj and Umrah on May 20, 2024, it was revealed that the Ministry of Religion unilaterally set the regular hajj quota to 213,320 and the special hajj quota to 27,680. In other words, reducing the quota for regular Hajj as many as 8,400 people because it was diverted to special Hajj pilgrims," explained Vishnu.

That way, Wisnu assessed that the Ministry of Religion's unilateral action was indicated to violate Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah. In Article 64 Paragraph (2) it is stated that the regular hajj quota is 92 percent and the special hajj quota is 8 percent of the total Indonesian hajj quota. This means that if there are 241,000 hajj quotas, the special hajj quota should be only 19,280 people.

Di sisi lain, Menteri Agama Yaqut Cholil Qoumas menegaskan kesiapannya mengikuti proses evaluasi penyelenggaraan haji lewat Pansus Haji.

"Yes, we just follow it. That's a process prepared by the constitution, right. So we just follow it," said Minister of Religion Yaqut, followed from the Ministry of Religion website.

He also expressed his willingness to provide a report on the implementation of the Hajj. "So we will report all the processes, right. Starting from the preparation to the implementation of the pilgrimage, we will convey it. As it is," he added.

The formation of the Hajj Special Committee is actually a natural thing if you look at all the problems in organizing the hajj, which is always repeated almost every year. The hope is that Indonesian pilgrims can get better service in the years to come.

However, the Hajj Special Committee is considered different because the public considers it to have a political aroma in it. There is a nuance of revenge, reportedly.

Muhaimin Iskandar was among the most passionate about the formation of the Hajj Special Committee. At the same time, the public reopened the 2024 election sheet. At that time, Gus Imin and Minister of Religion Yaqut were known to be against each other even though they were both from the NU organization.

During the 2024 presidential election, Cak Imin reportedly did not receive support from the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Executive Board chaired by Yahya Cholil Staquf alias Gus Yahya, who is none other than the brother of the Minister of Religion Yaqut. Meanwhile, Gus Yaqut was also considered to have played an important role in the victory of Paslon 02 Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka at the NU base in East Java and Central Java.

In the 2024 presidential election, the Anies Baswedan-Cak Imin pair in East Java only won 4.49 million votes, far behind the vote of Paslon 02 which shot up to 16.7 million votes. This is an interesting fact that Prabowo-Gibran was able to win a landslide in the PKB vote barn. For Cak Imin, the results of the 2024 presidential and legislative elections in East Java are a tragedy.

"In any politics, it can be used as an excuse. Well, regarding the difference in views on the distribution of the hajj quota, Cak Imin sees this as a loophole to 'teach a lesson' and even be a counter-attack to Gus Yaqut," said the Executive Director of the Indopol Survey and Consultant Institute, Ratno Sulistiyanto in his statement.

The same thing was also expressed by a political observer from the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Zaki Mubarak. He considered that the formation of the hajj committee was a positive thing if you saw various problems that occurred, ranging from delays in Hajj flights, misuse of visas, to the worst allocation of additional hajj quotas that violated the rules.

But he did not deny that the formation of this special committee was thick with political nuances if he saw the heated relationship between Cak Imin and Minister of Religion Yaqut related to the internal dynamics of PKB.

Gus Yaqut and Gus Yahya read the Hajj team and Cak Imin's special committee as a counter-attack, by hitting the Ministry of Religion. Certain political interest has been ridden. So the political nuance is strong, if that's true it's very unfortunate," said Zaki.

Zaki considered it very inappropriate for their internal disputes to be dragged into the special committee because it would damage NU's image. According to him, the feud between Nahdliyin's extended family was resolved internally.