Incumbent Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has and will likely continue to face resistance whenever he campaigns in certain Jakarta neighborhoods due to the controversy surrounding his ongoing blasphemy trial.
The latest such incident occurred on Friday, December 30, when some people, who claimed to be residents of a neighborhood in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, tried to prevent Ahok from campaigning there. The video of this exchange between Ahok and the group’s apparent leader was uploaded by Kompas.com to Youtube.
The exchange, which is fairly ridiculous in the way the man in the black jacket tries to use reason to argue with Ahok (but fails miserably), went a little something like this:
Ahok: Nobody invited me here, why can’t I come here to campaign?
Man in black: It’s within your right [to come here], but this is not for the election campaign right?
Ahok: I’m here to campaign, it’s my right.
Man in black: Alright, it’s within your right. But there are no neighborhood chiefs here.
Ahok: I don’t need their permission. I’m free to come here if I like.
Man in black: Yes, I understand you’re free to do so and it’s within your right.
Ahok: So what do you want?
Man in black: We the residents of this neighborhood want to prevent you from campaigning here.
Ahok: I can sue you for that. Write his name down.
Ahok then ignored the man in black and continued to campaign in the neighborhood. At the end of the video, other people claiming to be residents of the neighborhood stepped in to say that they support Ahok and that people who want to prevent him from campaigning do not represent the whole neighborhood.
The man in black then identified himself to the reporters at the scene as Herianudin, the leader of the Pasar Minggu chapter of the hardline group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the group who has been arguably the most vocal against Ahok in the blasphemy case.
However, FPI leader Novel Bamukmin denied that Herianudin is still a member of the FPI, saying that he’s now just a sympathizer of the group.
“Herianudin is no longer the leader of FPI Pasar Minggu. [He was their leader] three years ago,” he said, as quoted by Detik.
It’s not yet known if Herianudin and his group will be formally charged with impeding an election campaign, which is a criminal offense in Indonesia. Last month, a bubur seller was sentenced to four months probation after being found guilty of trying to block incumbent Vice Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat’s campaign in West Jakarta.
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