Andrew Budikusuma, an Indonesian man of Chinese descent, is making national headlines after he was allegedly attacked on the TransJakarta by unknown assailants who called him “Ahok”, in reference to Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who is also of Chinese descent.
READ: Chinese Indonesian allegedly assaulted on the TransJakarta, attackers called him “Ahok”
And now the governor himself has reacted to the news, calling the attackers cowardly.
“If they (the attackers) meet me, they wouldn’t dare beat me. [What they did] was just a terror technique,” Ahok said at City Hall today, as quoted by Vivanews.
Ahok said that it’s possible that the attackers targeted a man of Chinese descent in order to send a message of racial intolerance to the governor.
“I ask, would they dare do it again? It’s a cheap terror technique. They are hypocritical cowards,” he said.
Andrew wrote on a Facebook status update that he plans to report the attack to the Jakarta Metro Police today. He claims to have CCTV footage of the attack to be used as evidence.
