Mahfud MD Affirms Al Zaytun Islamic Boarding School Status To Be Developed And Will Not Be Disbanded

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD (central) accompanied by South Sulawesi Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman (left) after the Coordination Forum for the Gakkumdu Center for Handling Criminal Actions for the 2024 General Election in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Thursday, July 13, 2023. ANTARA/Darwin Fatir.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD emphasized that Al Zaytun Islamic Boarding School (Ponpes) is still in the status of coaching and will not be dissolved.

"For Al Zaytun it has been handled. Al Zaytun is our boarding school, let's keep it and build it so that it continues to grow. Because as an Islamic boarding school he has no indication of making a mistake," Mahfud told reporters after attending the Regional Election Setra Gakkumdu Coordination Forum. Sulawesi at the Claro Makassar hotel, South Sulawesi (Sulsel), Thursday 13 July.

According to Mahfud, Al Zaytun as a boarding school and educational institutions has no indication of producing graduates who violate the law. Therefore, he said, Al Zaytun would be fostered to be better. "Everything is fine. But the manager is named Panji Gumilang (legal process)," said the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK).

He said, there were indeed several legal problems that were indicated to have violated the rules by the leader of the Al Zaytun Islamic Boarding School, Panji Gumilang. However, the legal process against the person concerned continues to run at the law enforcement level. "That's the process, Panji Gumilang, not the boarding school. Any Islamic boarding school must still be fostered," he said, confiscated by Antara.

That's why, he said, Islamic boarding schools were the nation's capital for independence. The Islamic boarding school used to really fight in independence so that now it must be fostered and developed continuously so that it is always adaptive to the times.

When asked about the land assets from Ponpes Al Zaytun, Mahfud said that what had been reported was 1,200 hectares, it turned out that 295 land certificates were found in the personal name of the Panji Gumilang family. The Panji itself has 107 plots of land, and the rest are his wives and children. In addition, there are other names that are considered related to land ownership in the Ponpes area.

Regarding whether Panji Gumilang's assets flowed to political parties, Mahfud stated that he was not aware of the information, and there was no evidence related to Panji's funds flowing to political parties.

"I didn't hear that term, I didn't hear that I had funds from there flowing into political parties. Is there anything like that, nothing," he said.

However, in this case, said Mahfud, there was no connection with the case of the Indonesian Islamic State Network (NII) even though Al Zaytun was once part of the nine NII Amendment. "However, Panji Gumilang and Al Zaytun were founded, then they are no longer related to it (NII). So, this is a special case regarding NII, the question itself does not exist (relations). We do not associate it in this context," he said.