Rhoma Irama - Controversies and Allegations of Racism and Bigotry

Controversies and Allegations of Racism and Bigotry

In 2000s Rhoma was known to be a vocal critic of moral vice. His criticism often targeted fellow dangdut artist Inul Daratista over her dance style.

In 2003, neighbors followed by journalists caught both Rhoma Irama and Angel Lelga, an actress, in the latter's apartment at midnight. Rhoma and Angel first stated that they were discussing religion. After several revisions including Rhoma's picking up movie scripts, Angel confirmed that Rhoma had married her on "siri" (lit: secret) ground and later divorced her on the same day.

During the 2012 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election, Rhoma Irama was videotaped giving a political speech in a West Jakarta mosque. Rhoma Irama warned his audience against voting for candidate pair Joko Widodo and Basuki Cahaya Purnama because according to him, the former had Christian parents and the latter was Chinese and Christian. Some of his other statements were: 'Muslims would see their reputation sink if they elected non-muslims', 'calling people by their SARA (acronym for ethnic, religion, race) characteristics is justified when defending pribumi(natives) interest', 'Joko Widodo is just a step for Basuki and Chinese to assume power'. In his closing words he alleged 'ethnic Malay would face subjugation by Chinese in Jakarta as they did in Singapore when it gained independence from Malaysia should Basuki be allowed to govern'.

In Indonesia, attacking a person's race or religion and racial slurs in a political campaign are punishable by fine and prison time . Further added to the controversy was the fact that campaigning in a place of worship violates law .

On August 6, the Election Observer Commission (or Panwaslu) presided by Ramdansyah summoned him to begin investigation. The initial investigation ended with Rhoma Irama shedding tears in front of journalists saying 'to Joko Widodo and Basuki Purnama, I love them all' but insisted he did nothing wrong. Subsequent investigation saw Rhoma Irama and Fauzi Bowo (incumbent governor) denying that Rhoma was campaigning or working as Fauzi Bowo's campaigner despite Rhoma's own statement in June 2012 that he and his family had become one and Rhoma's appearance in Fauzi Bowo's official campaign video .

Rhoma was eventually cleared of all charges by Panwaslu. However Ramdansyah was relieved from his post after another investigation into his neutrality concluded he was unfairly siding with Fauzi Bowo re-election team.

Rhoma met face to face with Joko Widodo in an episode of Indonesia Lawyers Club show albeit through teleconference medium. He refused to apologize to Joko for falsely stating to his audience about the religion of Joko's parents.