Case Of Sharing Money, Bawaslu Examines Gus Miftah At His Residence

The owner of the Ora Aji Miftah Maulana or Gus Miftah (right) Islamic Boarding School when receiving the arrival of the East Java Pamekasan Bawaslu group at the residence of Ora Aji Padukuhan Tundan Islamic Boarding School, Kalasan, Sleman Regency/ANTARA

SLEMAN - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Pamekasan Regency, Madura, East Java conducted an examination of the owner of the Ora Aji Miftah Islamic Boarding School Maulana Habiburrahman or better known as Gus Miftah regarding the alleged politics of money at his residence.

Gus Miftah was questioned by Bawaslu Pamekasan at his residence at Ora Aji Islamic Boarding School in Padukuhan Tundan, Purwomartani, Kalasan, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY).

The Coordinator for Handling Violations, Data and Information of Bawaslu Pamekasan Suryadi said the examination of Gus Miftah was a follow-up to the findings of Bawaslu Pamekasan regarding the distribution of money carried out by Gus Miftah in Pamekasan Madura, some time ago.

"The examination of Gus Miftah is a follow-up to the investigation that we have carried out regarding the alleged distribution of money that also involves tobacco entrepreneurs in Madura," Suryadi said at Ora Aji Islamic Boarding School as reported by ANTARA, Monday, January 8.

The act of distributing money by the lecturer Gus Miftah went viral, because he was indeed known as a supporter of one of the pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2024 General Election.

In the one minute 29 second video that is circulating on social media, Gus Miftah appears to be distributing money to the public.

One by one, mostly women go forward and immediately receive money while kissing the speaker's hand.

Suryadi said that the activity should be suspected of violating Article 523 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections.

"There were 28 questions that we asked Gus Miftah, all referring to Article 523 of the Election Law," he said.

According to him, the results of this examination will then be studied to determine the next steps.

"We have also asked for data from the Sleman Regency Bawaslu regarding Gus Miftah's position, whether he is a member of the campaign team for one of the presidential candidates or not, both at the central and regional levels," he said.

Meanwhile, Gus Miftah said that from the start he was ready to be investigated regarding the alleged money politics.

According to him, what he did to his knowledge was not money politics because he was not a member of the campaign team for the presidential and vice presidential pairs at the national and regional levels.

"It can be checked at the KPU, that I am not a member of the campaign team, while those who can be charged violate the existence of candidates or campaign teams," he said.

Gus Miftah said the activities carried out were also not campaign activities, because he was invited to come by tobacco entrepreneurs in Madura with only "cash coffee" events.

"Initially, I was only invited to have coffee, but until the location was quite surprised because it turned out that many had come, then there was an activity to distribute the money and the money was also not for money politics. If the goal is money politics, it is definitely impossible to do it openly like that, it will definitely be hidden," he said.