Photo: Lawan Ahok Facebook page
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is certainly a polarizing leader. His no nonsense approach to politics, his outspoken and frank attitude as well as his seeming incorruptibility have earned him many strong supporters. He even has a whole political organization, Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), dedicated to getting the one million signatures and IDs required for Ahok to run as an independent candidate in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
But Ahok’s ways have also earned him plenty of critics and political enemies. Some of those critics have now formed their own movement, Lawan Ahok (Enemies of Ahok) to battle the governor and his agenda.
“The climax of course came with the violence against the residents of Kampung Pulo on Thursday,” said Lawan Ahok spokesman, Andi Sinulingga, at an event announcing the organization’s formation held in Menteng on Saturday as quoted by Kompas.
Andi said he was sure that there are many people in Jakarta who do not agree with the way Ahok is leading the capital, but are afraid to speak out. So he invited the people to join Lawan Ahok in order to fight against the governor.
“If there are those who have declared themselves ‘Friends Ahok’, we agreed there should be something for Ahok’s silent opponents, so that they need not be afraid anymore,” he said.
And went on to say that Ahok had manipulated the public into thinking that his rude ways were necessary.
“The profanities spoken by Ahok are now considered ordinary. Things like that need an opponent,” Andi said.
The Lawan Ahok spokesman reminded the media about the time Ahok said “shit” on live TV.
“He has a dirty mouth but likes to think himself better than the leaders that he judges as corrupt. You cannot say somebody is corrupt when in fact, there was never any legal process or court decision stating that person is corrupt,” Andi said, almost certainly in reference to the UPS corruption scandal in the Jakarta government.
The Lawan Ahok movement is made up of several groups including the Muslim Students Association, the Muhammadiyah Students Association and Gerindra Youth.
