President Must Fight For Indonesian Hajj, MPR: Jokowi Has Closeness To King Salman

President Joko Widodo and King Salman/ Instagram

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the MPR, Hidayat Nur Wahid, asked the government to continue to fight for Indonesia's hajj quota. The goal is to be able to dispatch pilgrims for the 2021 Hajj.

According to him, President Joko Widodo can open communication and diplomacy at the level of the head of state with the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, in order to discuss the issue of Indonesia's hajj quota this year.

"This is important and can be done by President Joko Widodo to prove the government's seriousness in defending the rights of hajj candidates who are also Indonesians," said Hidayat, Friday, June 4.

He said that these efforts have been carried out by the governments of other countries, one of which is Malaysia through the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin.

According to him, if Jokowi had carried out high-level diplomacy, Muslims in Indonesia would certainly accept whatever the outcome was. Because the state leadership has tried its best. Moreover, Jokowi and King Salman are known to have good relations.

"President Jokowi has a close relationship with King Salman, and even came directly to Saudi Arabia in April 2019 in order to discuss increasing cooperation in the economic sector," said the deputy chairman of the PKS Syuro Council.

On the one hand, he continued, the Saudi Arabian government has so far not announced a quota for hajj from outside the country for the 2021 hajj pilgrimage. This week the local authority has just issued entry permits to 11 countries for business purposes, including tourism, but not hajj and umrah. .

The 11 countries that are allowed to enter Saudi Arabia, as announced by the Ministry of the Interior of Saudi Arabia, are the United States, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Germany, France, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.

Hidayat understands the reason for the Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Coumas who canceled this year's Hajj due to considerations of the health and safety of the congregation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"But it doesn't necessarily make a unilateral decision with the cancellation of the Hajj candidate," he said.