Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan yesterday faced questioning by the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) over a possible breach of election laws, which could potentially see him imprisoned for up to three years if found guilty.
On Dec 17, Anies reportedly attended a national conference in Bogor for Gerindra — the political party backing its chairman Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno in their attempt to unseat incumbent President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin in next April’s election — during what was supposed to officially be his office hours. The governor went up to speak on stage, voicing his support for Prabowo-Sandi (the latter of whom served under him as vice governor before he became a VP nominee) and gave the two-finger salute, which symbolizes support for their campaign.
Yesterday, Anies was questioned for around two hours by Bawaslu. Afterwards, the supervisory body said it’s possible that Anies violated Article 547 of the Elections Law, which prohibits any government official from encouraging or discouraging anyone to vote for any candidate in an election. A violation of the law is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of IDR36 million (US$2,565).
“The suspicion is there was [a violation], but we have not [decided],” Bawaslu Bogor Regency Chairman Irvan Firmansyah told reporters yesterday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Soon after footage of Anies’ two-finger salute went viral, campaigners for Prabowo-Sandi defended the governor and claimed that the salute actually symbolized Anies’ celebration of victory as Jakarta’s soccer team Persija had just won the Indonesian soccer league then. Some in the opposition also accused the government of paranoia for turning what they say was a harmless salute into a possible criminal investigation.
On the other hand, the Home Ministry, which oversees regional administrations, previously said that Anies was given the permission to attend the Gerindra event, but he was prohibited from explicitly expressing his support for any of the presidential candidates. The ministry said they would give Anies an official warning if Bawaslu deems his salute to be a violation of election laws.
But after his questioning at Bawaslu yesterday, Anies made no mention of Persija or the accusations of paranoia against the government, only that he denied campaigning for Prabowo-Sandi.
“Everybody has the right to interpret symbols,” he said.
While some would say the two-finger salute is innocuous and the idea of sending someone to prison for three years to prison for making it is ludicrous, if this investigation goes any further, Anies wouldn’t be the first Jakarta governor to be on the receiving end of an arguably harsh interpretation of the law. His predecessor, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, was, after all, sentenced to two years in prison on trumped-up and highly politicized blasphemy charges.
