Despite being imprisoned while he serves out the 2-year sentence he received at the conclusion of his highly controversial blasphemy trial, former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama continues to make headlines. Most of the stories have been about the positive ways he’s keeping himself busy behind bars, but a recent anecdote from one of his visitors shows how some of the unpleasantness of prison is forcing the famously sharp mouthed Ahok to become more tolerant of certain things.
One of the people who has gone to the Mobile Brigade Command Detention Center (Mako Brimob) in Depok to visit the former governor is Jakarta City Council Chairman Prasetio Edi Marsudi, who often butted heads with Ahok before he lost his position as head of the Jakarta administration.
Despite that impression, Prasetio said he and Ahok are close and that he regularly visits him in prison. He also praised Ahok for his resilience in adapting to jail life.
According to Prasetio, Ahok has a problem with cigarette smoke and dust, and doesn’t like when people smoke near him as it can affect his breathing. But the city council head said officers at the detention facility like to smoke, and the fumes often get into Ahok’s cell.
Prasetio said the ex-governor simply beared with the smoke and is now so used to it that it doesn’t bother him anymore.
“I once said to him, ‘eh so you don’t scold (the officer) that is smoking?’ And he replied you’re crazy to think I’d scold them. This is Mako Brimob bro, I’m not brave in here,” Prasetio said as quoted by Tribun.
There have been plenty of other stories involving the ways that Ahok has been staying busy while in jail, such as reading the Bible, doing tai-chi and helping people propose marriage (and not swimming in the ocean, as alleged by one fake news story).
