Ahead Of The 212 Reunion, Ade Armando Recalls Firza Husein: The Person Who Prevented Rizieq Shihab From Building FPI As A Thug Organization

Lecturer of the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI), Ade Armando (Photo: DOK VOI)

JAKARTA - On December 2, the 212 Alumni Association (PA) plans to hold a 212 Reunion at the National Monument (Monas). The big action that happened in 2016 is trying to be brought back this year with a number of demands. One of them freed Rizieq Shihab from punishment.

Lecturer of the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI) Ade Armando spoke about the action. According to him, talking about Rizieq Shihab behind the big 212 action to this day, cannot be separated from the figure of Firza Husein.

Why Firza Hussein? According to Ade, it was this figure who succeeded in 'overthrowing' Rizieq Shihab from the throne of his figure in moving the 212 Action. Without Firza, it is possible that Rizieq Shihab succeeded in mobilizing the masses to win Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential election.

"If there were no Firza, Rizieq would be the real high priest of Indonesian Muslims. He will lead the 212 camp, not only to win Anies Baswedan and imprison Ahok but also to build the power of radical Islam in Indonesia," said Ade quoted from the CokroTV Youtube channel, Wednesday, November 10.

Firza Husein was once detained by the authorities along with 11 other people for allegedly being involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Besides Firza, there are Sri Bintang, Ratna Sarumpaet, Kivlan Zein, Ahmad Dhani. However, continued Ade, Firza was not detained for long.

At the end of January 2017, Rizieq and Firza's chat circulated which contained lewd remarks and photos. Rizieq who was originally considered a savior priest, collapsed instantly with a scandal known as 'The Ballad of Rizieq's Love.'

Ade said that Rizieq's group had defended this scandal by saying that Rizieq's cellphone was cloned in an attempt to destroy the image of the priest.

"However, this effort to save Rizieq was in vain when the police later declared Rizieq and Firza to be suspects in the alleged violation of the pornography law," said Ade.

Rizieq was cornered. Several calls to the police for inspection were ignored. At the end of April when he was summoned, Rizieq admitted that he was sick, so he asked for the examination to be postponed. Furthermore, in May 2017 Rizieq reasoned that he was on umrah when he was called for the second time.

"Let's imagine if there was no Firza. Under the leadership of Rizieq, FPI is very likely to become a giant thug organization that continues to spread terror in Indonesia,"

"For me, December 2, 2016 deserves to be remembered as the momentum that started the failure of efforts to control Indonesia. Therefore, I think we should thank Firza, without realizing it, she became a central figure in saving Indonesia," said Ade.