It’s still not yet clear whether Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama will be choosing to run for reelection as an independent candidate in the 2017 election or if he will be running with a political party, but most recently he said that he would leave that decision up to Teman Ahok, the independent group that has collected over one million KTP ID cards from people who support Ahok running as an independent.
Teman Ahok is still considering that decision, one made difficult due to legislation, recently passed by the House of Representatives, that will make it exceedingly difficult for the KTPs they’ve collected to be authenticated by the government’s election body (it is widely believed the new law was created specifically to block Ahok’s independent run).
At any rate, Ahok will be running one way or another and, like all political candidates, he will need money to run his re-election campaign. Having made his dislike of campaigning clear in the past, the governor has stated his wish to streamline his fundraising efforts as much as possible by simply asking those million plus supporters of his independent run to contribute Rp 10,000 (or more, obviously).
“I want to send all of them an SMS blast to all Teman Ahok supporters, which is approximately one million people, asking whether they want to donate Rp 10,000. If Rp 10,000 is multiplied by one million that would be Rp 10 billion. If they want to donate Rp 50,000 then it could be up to Rp 50 billion,” he said today as quoted by Detik.
Ahok said his fundraising plan is not yet set in stone and that he would discuss it with Teman Ahok first.
Would you be willing to contribute Rp 10,000 to Ahok’s reelection campaign? Let us know on our Facebook page.
