Jakarta Globe, Jan 24, 2015
Jakarta. Vice President Jusuf Kalla flew to Jeddah on Saturday to pay his respects to late Saudi Arabian king Abdullah bin Abdul Azis.
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| Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, center, arrives at Heathrow Airport in west London, in this Oct. 29, 2007 file photo. (Reuters Photo/Dylan Martinez) |
Jakarta. Vice President Jusuf Kalla flew to Jeddah on Saturday to pay his respects to late Saudi Arabian king Abdullah bin Abdul Azis.
“The Vice
President will also congratulate Crown Prince Salman as the new Saudi Arabian
king,” said the vice president’s spokesman, Hussein Abdullah.
Kalla flew
to Jeddah on Saturday morning accompanied by his wife, Mufidah Jusuf Kalla, and
Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin using the presidential
plane from Halim Perdanakusumah airport.
Hussein
said Kalla’s visit to Saudi Arabia was an official order from President Joko
Widodo.
Kalla and
his wife are also scheduled to perform a minor hajj pilgrimage or Umrah during
their visit to Saudi Arabia.
Indonesia
is lobbying Saudi Arabia to increase its hajj quota for Indonesian pilgrims
after the limit was reduced by 20 percent to accommodate reduced capacity while
the Grand Mosque in Mecca underwent renovation works.
Indonesia
wants Saudi Arabia to transfer other countries’ unused allocations to enable
more people from the world’s largest Muslim-majority country to go on Islam’s
most sacred pilgrimage.
Jusuf Kalla
may also advocate on behalf of the 45 Indonesians awaiting execution in the
kingdom. The 45 are mostly female domestic workers, and serious questions have
been raised about the legitimacy of many of their criminal convictions.
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