North Sumatra Governor Tengku Erry Nuradi has recently joined the not-so-esteemed list of Indonesian politicians allegedly misusing their authority for personal gain – all because of a selfie.
On Saturday, Nuradi and his wife, Evi Diana Sitorus, attended the wedding of the Samosir Island regent’s child, which is fair enough, since weekends are usually kondangan days in Indonesia, devoted to celebrating weddings. What’s not so fair, however, was how the couple got to the island-within-an-island: using a state-owned helicopter.
The revelation came from Evi herself, who posted a selfie with her husband on Facebook alongside the caption, “Pressed for time, on the way to Samosir using Basarnas’ (National Disaster Mitigation Agency) helicopter.”
Many rightly pointed out that it’s unacceptable for a government official to use state-owned property for personal reasons, which then prompted Evi to delete the selfie. However, a screenshot of the post still exists and has gone viral.
“State facilities cannot be used for personal reasons. Even President Joko Widodo flew on a commercial plane when attending his son’s graduation in Singapore. A governor’s authority cannot exceed that of the president,” said North Sumatra Regional Council member Sutrisno Pangaribuan, as quoted by BeritaSatu today.
Sutrisno added that the helicopter in question belongs to Basarnas, so its sole purpose should only be for providing emergency aid in times of disasters.
“After the issue was highlighted, the photo was deleted. This inappropriate use [of the helicopter] can have consequences on fuel use and maintenance. The governor and his wife have hurt the public’s feelings,” he said.
Nuradi nor his wife have not publicly commented on the matter. However, Nuradi today seemingly tried to justify his use of Basarnas’ helicopter by posting several photos on Facebook showing his visit to a recently burned down site on Samosir Island.
We wonder if that visit came before or after the wedding ceremony.
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