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Ma'ruf Amin (born 11 March 1943) is an Indonesian politician, Islamic cleric, and lecturer who is the
13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
and current
vice president of Indonesia The vice president of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Wakil Presiden Republik Indonesia) is second-highest officer in the executive branch of the Indonesian government, after the president, and ranks first in the presidential line of suc ...
. Aged nearly 77 years old when inaugurated, he is the oldest Indonesian vice president to ever be sworn in. He was the chairman of the Ulema Council of Indonesia (''Majelis Ulama Indonesia'', or MUI) when he accepted the vice-presidential nomination. On 9 August 2018, President
Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...
announced that Ma'ruf would be his running mate in the
2019 Indonesian presidential election General elections were held in Indonesia on 17 April 2019. For the first time in the country's history, the president, the vice president, members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), and members of local legislative bodies were elected ...
. Following his candidacy, he resigned as Supreme Leader (''rais 'aam syuriah'') of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world's largest Islamic organization.


Early life and career

Ma'ruf Amin was born during the
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. It was one of the most crucial and important periods in modern Indonesian history. In Ma ...
to Mohamad Amin and Maimunah. He first went to primary school in the ''kecamatan'' of Kresek. He continued his studies at Pesantren Tebuireng in Jombang,
East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and so ...
, an influential Islamic boarding school established by NU founder Hasyim Asy'ari. Later, he received a bachelor's degree in Islamic philosophy from Ibnu Khaldun University in
Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Bante ...
. Shortly after graduating from college, Ma'ruf carried out ''
dakwah Dawah ( ar, دعوة, lit=invitation, ) is the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam. The plural is ''da‘wāt'' (دَعْوات) or ''da‘awāt'' (دَعَوات). Etymology The English term ''Dawah'' derives from the Arabic ...
'' missions in Jakarta. At that time, NU was still an active political party and Ma'ruf was elected to the Indonesian parliament, the
People's Representative Council The People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, DPR-RI), also known as the House of Representatives, is one of two elected chambers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), ...
(or DPR, ''Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat'') in the national election held in 1971. Six years later, in 1977, he was elected to the Jakarta City Council as a member of the United Development Party (''Partai Persatuan Pembangunan'' or PPP) for one term (1977–1982) and served as leader of the PPP caucus. At the end of his term, Ma'ruf returned to academia and social activism. In 1989, he was appointed as a ''katib 'aam'', a senior position within NU's ''syuriah'', its supreme governing council. He then rose to be one of the ''rais'', a leader, overseeing the executive leadership of Abdurrahman Wahid. Following the fall of Suharto in 1998, Ma'ruf became an advisor to Wahid's National Awakening Party (''Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa'', or PKB) and advised Wahid throughout the period of his presidency of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. Ma'ruf returned to active politics and represented the PKB in the national DPR from 1999 to 2004. During this second term in the DPR, Ma'ruf was chair of the Fourth Commission (agriculture, food, and maritime affairs) as well as member of the Second Commission (government affairs and regional autonomy) and Budgetary Board. While a member of the DPR during 1999–2004, Ma'ruf chaired the Ulema Council's committee in charge of issuing legal opinions (''
fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...
''). He did not seek re-election to the DPR in 2004 and returned to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to chair its National Sharia Committee (acting from 2004 to 2010). He also served as an advisor to President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...
in his Presidential Advisory Council from 2007 to 2014. In 2015, Ma'ruf ran for the position of ''rais 'aam syuriah'' of the NU, equivalent to chair of the supreme governing council. He finished in second place after the incumbent Ahmad Mustofa Bisri from
Rembang Rembang Regency ( id, Kabupaten Rembang) is a regency ( id, kabupaten) on the extreme northeast coast of Central Java Province, on the island of Java (bordering on the Java Sea) in Indonesia. The regency covers an area of 1,035.70 km2 on Ja ...
's Pesantren Raudlatuth Thalibin. In a significant development, Bisri withdrew his name from the race and Ma'ruf was then elected to the position by NU's 33rd Congress. Several weeks after his ascendancy to NU's highest post, Ma'ruf was elected to be the chair of MUI, succeeding
Muhammadiyah Muhammadiyah ( ar, محمدية; 'followers of Muhammad'); also known as the Muhammadiyah Society ( id, Persyarikatan Muhammadiyah) is a major Islamic non-governmental organization in Indonesia.A. Jalil HamidTackle the rising cost of living longe ...
's Din Syamsuddin on 27 August 2015.


Vice presidential candidacy and victory

President
Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...
announced that he would run for re-election in the 2019 presidential election. His vice president
Jusuf Kalla Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (; born 15 May 1942) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th and 12th vice president of Indonesia, the only vice president in Indonesian history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (2004� ...
was not eligible for another term because of the term limits set for the positions of president and vice-president. (Jusuf Kalla had already served a five-year term as vice-president under Yudhoyono from 2004 to 2009.) Speculation as to who Jokowi might select as his running mate focused on several candidates including Mahfud MD, a former defence minister and chief justice of the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
. On 9 August, in a surprise move, Widodo announced that Ma'ruf would be his running mate. Mahfud had been reported to be preparing himself to become Jokowi's vice presidential candidate but, following a push by several constituent parties of Widodo's governing coalition and influential Islamic figures, Ma'ruf was selected instead. Explaining his decision, Jokowi referred to Ma'ruf's extensive experience in government and religious affairs. The
General Elections Commission The General Elections Commission ( id, Komisi Pemilihan Umum, abbreviated as KPU) is the body that organises elections in Indonesia. Its responsibilities include deciding which parties can contest elections, organising the voting and announcing ...
announced Widodo and Ma'ruf's victory, with the pair securing 55.5 percent of the votes, on 21 May 2019, though Ma'ruf's status as Vice President-elect was pending any lawsuits to the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
.


Vice-presidency

Ma'ruf was sworn in as vice president on 20 October 2019. Aged 76 years and 223 days when inaugurated, he is the oldest-ever Indonesian vice president to be sworn in.


Views

As MUI chair, Ma'ruf gave his support to regulations prohibiting pornography and supported a decree banning
Ahmadiya Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
activities. In addition, Ma'ruf "regretted" the Constitutional Court's ruling to reject a proposed ban on sexual activities of homosexuals in 2017, instead wanting "stern regulations". In 2012, Ma'ruf also issued a recommendation that Muslims not say
Merry Christmas The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...
, citing the controversy associated with the saying. However, in 2018, he noted that there was never an explicit ban of saying Christmas greetings issued by MUI, after a video of him saying Merry Christmas circulated. Ma'ruf similarly supported prohibiting
Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
, claiming that its celebration would "only cause a fuss and destroy norms and morality", though he does not believe that every region in Indonesia must ban it. On
Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities ...
, Ma'ruf stated that suicide bombers are not martyrs (''
shahid ''Shaheed'' ( ,  ,   ; pa, ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) denotes a martyr in Islam. The word is used frequently in the Quran in the generic sense of "witness" but only once in the sense of "martyr" (i.e. one who dies for his faith); ...
''), and that the present time is the era for intellectual instead of physical warfare. During the debates for the 2019 presidential election, he emphasized the importance of deradicalization in
counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...
. In June 2022, Ma'ruf recommended the
Indonesian Ulema Council Indonesian Ulema Council ( id, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, ar, مجلس العلماء الإندونيسي, abbreviated MUI) is Indonesia's top Islamic scholars body. MUI was founded in Jakarta on July 26, 1975 during the New Order era. The council ...
to issue a
fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...
which would permit the use of cannabis for medical purposes.


Controversies


The Ahok affair

Ma'ruf was embroiled in part of the controversy surrounding the contentious Jakarta gubernatorial election in 2017. The then-Jakarta governor
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (, Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Chûng Van-ho̍k''; born 29 June 1966) is an Indonesian businessman, politician, and former governor of Jakarta. He is also known by his Hakka Chinese nickname Ahok (). He was the second minority go ...
, widely known as "Ahok", became the target of numerous protests in Jakarta in November 2016. In response, Ahok alleged that Ma'ruf had taken sides in the election due to a phone call with former president
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...
, whose son Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono was running against Ahok in the election. Ahok later apologized to Ma'ruf via social media for any implication that Ma'ruf had been influenced by political pressure. Ma'ruf accepted Ahok's apology, saying that the matter was resolved. Despite Ma'ruf's willingness to let the matter rest, an organization known as the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs reported Ahok to the criminal investigation unit of the
Indonesian National Police '' , mottotranslated = (Serving the Nation) , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , employees = 440,000 (2020) , volunteers = , budget = , nongovernment ...
for allegedly having harassed Ma'ruf and wiretapped his phone conversations with former President Yudhoyono despite previous denials by Ahok's legal team of the latter act. In a separate interview, conducted after his selection as a vice presidential candidate, Ma'ruf stated that he regretted testifying against Ahok and added that he was "forced" to do so because he is enforcing the law.


Personal life

Ma'ruf's first wife, Siti Churiyah, died on 22 October 2013 at the age of 67. From the 49-year marriage, they had nine children and 13 grandchildren. Seven months later, on 31 May 2014, he married Wury Estu Handayani who had been a widow for around two years. They were married in a private ceremony at the well-known Sunda Kelapa Mosque in
Menteng Menteng is the south-central district of Central Jakarta, one of the administrative municipalities in the capital city Jakarta, Indonesia. The nexus of its heritage is the Menteng neighbourhood (Project), a new urban design developed mainly in ...
,
Central Jakarta Central Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Pusat) is one of the five administrative cities () which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 1,056,896 at the ...
. Ma'ruf is a fan of
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
. He previously supported
Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
, but after a few years of poor performances by the club, Ma'ruf switched his allegiance to its archrival
Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
in 2019.


Decorations

As vice president of Indonesia, Ma'ruf is automatically bestowed the highest class of 6 out of 7 civilian Star Decorations ( id, Tanda Kehormatan Bintang), namely: ; 22 October 2019) * Star of Mahaputera, 1st Class ( id, Bintang Mahaputera Adipurna; 22 October 2019) * Star of Mahaputera, 2nd Class ( id, Bintang Mahaputera Adipradana; 13 August 2014) * Star of Service, 1st Class ( id,
Bintang Jasa Utama Bintang Beer ( id, Bir Bintang, literally "Star Beer") is a brand of beer from Indonesia and is produced by PT Multi Bintang Indonesia Tbk, part of Heineken. The beer is styled as a pale lager, gold in colour with an ideal serving temperature ...
; 22 October 2019) * Star of Humanity ( id, Bintang Kemanusiaan; 22 October 2019) * Star of Democracy Upholder, 1st Class ( id, Bintang Penegak Demokrasi Utama; 22 October 2019) * Star of Culture Parama Dharma ( id,
Bintang Budaya Parama Dharma Bintang Beer ( id, Bir Bintang, literally "Star Beer") is a brand of beer from Indonesia and is produced by PT Multi Bintang Indonesia Tbk, part of Heineken. The beer is styled as a pale lager, gold in colour with an ideal serving temperature o ...
; 22 October 2019) * Star of Bhayangkara ( id,
Bintang Bhayangkara Utama Bintang Beer ( id, Bir Bintang, literally "Star Beer") is a brand of beer from Indonesia and is produced by PT Multi Bintang Indonesia Tbk, part of Heineken. The beer is styled as a pale lager, gold in colour with an ideal serving temperature ...
; 2019)


References

{{Authority control Indonesian Islamic religious leaders Indonesian Islamists Indonesian Sunni Muslims Living people Sunni Muslim scholars Sundanese people Nahdlatul Ulama 1943 births People from Tangerang National Awakening Party politicians United Development Party politicians Jakarta Regional People's Representative Council members Members of the People's Representative Council, 1999 Vice presidents of Indonesia Indonesian Muslims