The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), one of the country’s youngest and most progressive political parties, is certainly not shy about being provocative. Last week, PSI, a member of President Joko Widodo’s coalition, handed out three sarcastic “Early 2019 Liar Awards” to three senior opposition figures — presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, his running mate Sandiaga Uno and Democratic Party deputy secretary general Andi Arief for separate statements each made last week that were widely derided as being false or misleading.
Among the PSI officials handing out the awards was one of the youngest and most prominent faces of the so-called “millenial” party, 22-year-old legislative candidate Tsamara Amany. Apparently incensed by the impudence of the young politician to criticize senior members of his party and coalition in such a way, Democratic Party member Taufik Hidayat tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/TopeRendusara/status/1081155552145620992
“She’s never been an activist, her youth was spent who knows where, but she has a big mouth, if I was a woman I’d have already slapped her mouth back and forth”
Taufik, who is running as a Democratic Party candidate for the Jakarta City Council in this April’s elections. As you might imagine, his misogynistic tweet about Tsamara, with its implied threat of violence against the young woman, did not sit well with many people.
But Tsamara showed just how seriously she took Taufik’s threat with her badass response, simply giving the address of PSI’s office and adding, “I’ll be waiting” (with a smiling emoji, for good measure).
Kantor PSI: Jl Wahid Hasyim no 194.
Saya tunggu mas 😊 https://t.co/yvwAYGHmvb
— Tsamara Amany (@TsamaraDKI) January 5, 2019
Taufik later posted a follow-up to his original attack, clarifying that he was “clearly not a woman” and so his tweet was just an expression of his annoyance, not an actual threat.
https://twitter.com/TopeRendusara/status/1081772748806836225
Tsamara posted her own follow-up, saying:
Saya tidak pernah punya masalah dengan mereka yang beda pendapat.
Tapi ancaman kekerasan terhadap perempuan harus dilawan dengan berani. Agar mereka tahu, bahwa ancaman seperti itu tidak akan memunculkan ketakutan. Justru sebaliknya, akan membangkitkan keberanian.
— Tsamara Amany (@TsamaraDKI) January 5, 2019
I have no problem with those who have different opinions.
But the threat of violence against women must be combated with courage. To let them know that such threats will not engender fear. Quite the contrary, it will only make us braver.
Beyond verbal attacks like Taufik’s, Tsamara and three other PSI officials, including party chairwoman Grace Natalie, are also facing a legal attack from Advokat Cinta Tanah Air (ACTA), a legal group that often represents Islamist hardliner organizations such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and their officials. On Sunday night, ACTA announced they had filed a report with police accusing the PSI officials of slander for their liars awards. Police have not made any statements regarding whether they will act on the report.
PSI said the awards were based on three separate statements made by Prabowo, Sandiaga and Andi Arief that most observers thought were misleading at best and outright falsehoods at worst. They include accusations Prabowo made about the country’s healthcare system and one hospital in particular, a statement Sandiaga made about being able to build infrastructure without debt and a tweet from Andi Arief concerning a story about election tampering which was proven to be a hoax.
PSI founder Grace Natalie was also reported to the police late last year on charges that she had committed blasphemy through her party’s opposition to religious-based laws and polygamy. She was questioned by police in relation to that report but authorities have not yet said whether they will continue investigating it.
