Yesterday, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama faced the third session of his ongoing blasphemy trial which saw a number of witnesses testifying against him. All of the witnesses were associated with Islamic hardliner organizations such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) that have been pushing for Ahok to be jailed over a single sentence of a speech he made in the Thousand Islands back in September (a speech, the defense noted, that none of the witnesses had actually attended).
Ahok apparently did not sit idly by during their testimony, at one point shouting at a witness “‘Who has given FPI the authority to speak on behalf of all Muslims?”
During a press conference later in the day, Ahok told reporters about a few other problems he had with the prosecution’s witnesses. He specifically singled out FPI Jakarta secretary general Habib Novel for an odd discrepancy on the official court document detailing Novel’s personal details, which Novel signed off on as being complete and accurate.
“The name of the witness is Habib Novel. He worked from 1992 to 1995 at Pizza Hut. But perhaps because he was embarrassed to work at Pizza Hut, because it’s an American company, he deliberately wrote Fitsa Hats,” Ahok said as quoted by Detik.
“He deliberately changed it. This is what I saw. I have to laugh. He says he did not notice, however, he signed off on it all,” Ahok said, showing off the court documents.
According to Ahok, Novel was ashamed to acknowledge that he worked for the American pizza powerhouse because of how often he said that Muslims should not be led by non-Muslims.
“I think he was embarrassed because he said Muslims should not be led by people who are not believers, the kafir (infidels),” Ahok said.
And thus a meme was born.
Netizens almost instantly started producing Fitsa Hats jokes at an incredible rate, causing it to trend on social media throughout last night and into this morning.
Even pop superstar Anggun has gotten in on the Fitsa Hats fun:
Novel responded to the meme by telling reporters that he did not fill out the court documents himself but rather the police did it when he was being questioned by them.
“There were six pages. I did not check one by one because I was tired, checking all day until evening. So I missed it,” he said as quoted by Pojok Satu.
Which might be true. However, it should be noted that he signed off on the document as being accurate and complete. And he’s a lawyer (he’s actually trying to file a Rp 204 million civil suit against Ahok to cover the costs of his own investigation into Ahok’s alleged blasphemy) so maybe he should have known to check an official court document carefully before signing it?
But all of that aside, Novel’s has another strong defense for Fitsagate: Pizza Hut isn’t American, it’s Italian.
“Anyway Pizza Hut is from Italy, why say it’s from America? (Editor’s note: Because it is.) That’s Ahok, he’s looking for mistakes but it just makes him look more ignorant,” Novel said.
