Despite all of the candidates in Indonesia’s 2019 presidential election signing a declaration last week promising a peaceful campaign, few, including us, thought that was any guarantee that it would be drama-free. But even we never expected things to get this saucy, this fast.
Recently, a website set off controversy in Indonesia for containing numerous shocking — though completely unsubstantiated — stories about the deepest, darkest and most depraved secrets of Prabowo Subianto’s running mate, Sandiaga Uno.
The stories on the website read like bad erotic fan fiction that features the man who could be the nation’s second-in-command engaging in multiple secret acts of infidelity, threesomes, and more, as well as siphoning funds from the Jakarta budget for his mistress while he was the capital’s vice governor.
The person or people behind the website are unknown, but whoever they are, they seem to have a lot of time on their hands and a certain kind of dedication towards attacking the 49-year-old’s character, as the website looks fairly professional (as far as these kinds of sites usually go) and contains many edited photos that look like they required at least some time and effort to make.
While nobody has come forward to claim the site or support its totally unfounded accusations, Sandiaga still felt the need to deny its allegations.
“Essentially it’s all lies and lying is a sin,” Sandiaga told reporters yesterday, as quoted by Detik.
Sandiaga added that his legal team is investigating the website for criminal violations.
The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) say they are investigating the matter and are working with the IT Ministry to have the website blocked. Campaign officials from President Joko Widodo and running mate Ma’ruf Amin’s ticket also said they are supporting an investigation into the website to prevent similar hoaxes from affecting both tickets in the future.
As of this morning, the website is still accessible by users of certain ISPs in Indonesia though it has already been blocked by others.
This is not the first time Sandiaga’s been linked to a salacious sex scandal. During the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial campaign season, stories appeared alleging that he had an extramarital relationship with an actress named Marcella Zalianty, but those rumors proved to be unsubstantiated.
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