Bobby first shot to viral stardom thanks to his hobby of crashing the high-level meetings Prabowo often hosts at his home (though he’s never scolded for it — just look how adorbs he is). Prabowo’s campaign has used Bobby’s fame in an apparent attempt to reach a very specific subset of potential voters who both love cats and were iffy about supporting the presidential challenger. But, they’ve also used the Instagram account to promote stray cat adoption.
Bobby has also become such a mainstay of Prabowo’s campaign that there are actually — seriously — two communities dedicated to the cat, one called Bobby’s Best Friends Community and the other known as the Prabowo-Sandi’s Cat Empowerment Community Institution.
To celebrate the paw-someness of Bobby, the two communities held a look-alike competition at Gerindra’s headquarters in Ragunan, South Jakarta, on Saturday.
After the judges assessed the competition, a cat named Bandi emerged the winner.
“He allowed himself to be kissed, that’s how I know if a cat is friendly or not. Bobby likes to be kissed by Prabowo, that’s why we tested that aspect too. He has a sharp face like Bobby, and he also got the fierce macho gaze. He has bangs in a similar pattern and color, too. Bandi is also big and fat like Bobby,” competition judge Afrida told Detik on Saturday.
Bandi, who was once tossed out by his previous owner, won the competition’s IDR2.5 million (US$175) grand prize. His current owner, Ratri, said she knew he was destined to be a star and would always care for him.
“I won’t allow [if Prabowo asks for Bandi], but he can ask for other cats. Bandi also has a lot of fans already,” Ratri said.
Other than the cat competition, there was also a cat fashion show as well as stalls for “pawrents” to bathe their furry friends, get them vaccinated, or have them checked up by vets.
The head of the event’s organizing committee Priscilia Ester Waworuntu, said the event aimed to show Prabowo’s animal-loving side.
“Through the [@bobbythek4t] Instagram account, we highlight the humanitarian side of Pak Prabowo. And now, we want this event to promote the animal lover image of Pak Prabowo. We also want to move people to adopt stray cats, because there’s a program from the Jakarta government to control the stray cat population,” Priscilia told Detik.
Unfortunately, Bobby himself wasn’t able to attend the event because he’s not allowed to leave home, especially with his owner out of town campaigning for the presidency.
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