Andrew Budikusuma, a victim of a despicable racial attack on the TransJakarta last Friday, finally reported the incident to the Jakarta Metro Police yesterday.
Andrew, who is of Chinese descent, previously wrote on his Facebook page that when he was riding on a TransJakarta bus, a group of three or four men called him “Ahok”, which was intended as a racial slur in reference to Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who is also of Chinese descent. The assailants then pulled Andrew out of the bus and into the JCC bus stop before beating him. Luckily, other passengers grabbed Andrew back into the bus, leaving the assailants behind at the bus stop.
The Jakarta Metro Police say that they are now in the process of identifying Andrew’s assailants.
“We looked at the CCTV footage, it’s clear that there was indeed a beating,” said Jakarta Metro Police Spokesman Awi Setiyono, as quoted by Kompas today.
Awi added that the footage is now with the National Police’s Forensics Lab for further investigation. The police have so far interviewed two witnesses: a passenger and a security officer at the JCC bus stop.
Meanwhile, Andrew told reporters that he only managed to file a report to the police yesterday because he was recovering from his injuries over the weekend and he wanted to gather enough evidence first.
“I want to know their motives [for the beating] and I want them to take responsibility for their actions. They must take responsibility, they must apologize to me and my family,” Andrew said upon reporting the incident to the police, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
