Many recent visitors to the official Jakata Government website, jakarta.go.id, were surprised to see that the site’s usual logo had been replaced by the one above, featuring traditional Betawi ondel-ondel puppets decorating a Christmas tree in the snow and opening presents. It’s a cute image but an odd one considering it was up around the time of Indonesia’s most important Islamic holiday, Idul Fitri.
Some people apparently complained about the site’s Christmas-y look, saying it was inappropriate for the season. Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama did not believe it was the work of the government, saying he suspected it was the work of X-Mas obsessed hackers.
“the Communications and Information Technology Department must be questioned about this. Perhaps the website was hacked,” Ahok said at City Hall today as quoted by Tribunnews.
Ii Karunia, the head of the Jakarta Department of Communication, Information and Public Relations (Kominfomas) explained that the Christmas graphics actually came from the government, but confirmed the site was malfunctioning.
“That was the image that appeared on site during Christmas and New Year’s last year. We are trying to find the solution of why it is appearing again. It should now be displaying an image with ondel-ondel designs for Lebaran,” Ii said.
.
Currently jakarta.go.id is down while Kominfomas attempts to fix the Christmas bug, displaying just an image placeholder and text that reads “Currently under repair” to visitors.
