Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s got a lot on his plate at the moment with the whole Australia-Bali Nine situation and he doesn’t want the media to make matters worse.
The president reportedly asked media to tone it down and take the heat out of reporting diplomatic tensions over the impending executions of the Bali Nine pair.
Most notably, Jokowi is so over the flak Australian PM Tony Abbott has received for making comments linking $1 billion in tsunami aid and his disapproval of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumarn’s imminent executions. Trending now is #coinforAustralia, a social media tag that has irked Indonesians throwing their coins to Abbott, as a symbol of paying back the tsunami aid.
However, receiving less attention are reports that leaders of the two countries have already clarified the comments and moved on. Last week, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop reportedly got on the phone with Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) to explain Abbott’s controversial remarks. Abbott reportedly made a call to JK as well to explain himself as well.
On Monday, when Jokowi was asked about the tsunami aid-death sentence comments by Abbott, he told a journalist, “There’s already been clarification. Don’t you heat this up,” as quoted by news.com.AU.
Jokowi remains adamant that the Bali Nine pair will see the firing squad. When asked if he would change plans to execute the two Australians, he reportedly said: “No, that’s our sovereign law.”
Photo by AFP
