Few staple goods are as important to Indonesians as rice and many predict the price of the grain, which is consumed by the majority of Indonesians on a daily basis, could play a key part in determining the winner of next year’s presidential election.
So it’s not surprising that some people thought President Joko Widodo was directly playing to rice politics when they saw this image on bags of beras (uncooked rice) distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan). Some netizens took to social media to complain that it was a form of illegal campaigning:
https://twitter.com/jokoedy6/status/1044498560396345344
This Ministry of Agriculture’s rice bears Jokowi’s logo. If he doesn’t violate the rules, Jokowi is unpopular. If he wants to be popular, then he has to cheat.
The bags bear the logo of Kementan and the Indonesian Farmers Store, as well as the words “fresh rice” above the picture. The government distributes those bags of rice at reduced prices to markets throughout the country. Having Jokowi’s image on them could be a powerful campaign tool, if using government resources in such a way weren’t totally illegal.
After some of their complaints went viral, the Ministry of Agriculture went to the media to clarify that it was most definitely not the president’s image on the beras bags.
“The picture or photo printed on the rice packaging from the Indonesian Farmers Store is not a photograph of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Pak Jokowi. That is a photo of a staff model at the Ministry of Agriculture’s General and Procurement Bureau, Mas Agus Faizal,” Kementan spokesperson Kuntoro Boga Andri told Detik today.
The Kementan official explained that Agus was actually a driver for the bureau that also served as the model for the image. He also released a photo of Agus to show the similarity.
The distinction can be seen more clearly in this color version of the logo:
https://twitter.com/Silvy_riau/status/1044532345976500224
While Jokowi may not be so obvious as to slap his face on bags of beras, he certainly knows the vital importance of making sure that rice prices don’t go up and has introduced a number of measure to improve rice self-sufficiency and keep prices low, until next April’s election at least.
Reader Interactions