It’s very rare to see government officials challenging their protesters to a fistfight. But our Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has become such a legendary badass that we expect nothing less from him.
Ahok was at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a cheap apartment complex in Tambora, West Jakarta this morning when a group of protesters demonstrated nearby by holding up signs saying, “Ahok is arrogant” and “when Ahok comes, kaki limas disappear”. The protesters demanded that Ahok step down as the governor of Jakarta.
But Ahok said he was not in the least bit intimidated by them.
“I cannot be intimidated, do not try to scare me by protesting in front [of the Tambora apartment gate],” Ahok said in his speech during the ceremony while ignoring the protesters, as quoted by Warta Kota today.
“So I just said deploy all the troops with their weapons, don’t try to threaten us. We can fight against them.”
Ahok even said he doesn’t mind getting into a fistfight with the protesters himself.
“If it’s one against one or two, my physique is still strong enough to fight. But if it’s against 10, then only Kung Fu heroes in movies can handle that,” Ahok joked, drawing laughter from the guests at the ceremony.
We think Ahok was just feigning modesty to lure his enemies into a false sense of confidence. With a big frame like that, the governor can totally take down 10 scrawny protesters at once.
