Police are reportedly questioning three women, who appear to be linked to presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s campaign, for allegedly spreading lies about incumbent President Joko Widodo in a video that has gone hugely viral since the weekend.
In the video, two women — both in their 40s — can be seen going door-to-door campaigning for Prabowo in a village. When they were speaking to the resident of one house, instead of promoting Prabowo’s programs, the women were spreading the unsubstantiated idea that Jokowi’s leadership would be detrimental towards Muslims in the country.
“Adzan (call to prayer) from mosques will be forbidden, no one will be allowed to wear the hijab. Women can marry women, men can marry men,” the women said in Sundanese in the video.
The video was allegedly taken in Karawang Regency, West Java on February 13. The two women in the video, identified by their initials ES and IP, were called in for questioning by Karawang Police yesterday along with a woman identified as CW — also in her 40s — who took the video and uploaded it online. The case is now being handled at the provincial level by the West Java Police, though there have been no reports of criminal charges against the women yet.
Under Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), deliberately spreading false or misleading information online is a crime punishable by up to six years in prison. Under elections laws, taking part in a black campaign is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
Prabowo’s official campaign, BPN, said the women are members of a pro-Prabowo volunteer group Mothers Defend Prabowo-Sandi Party (PEPES).
“They’re PEPES volunteers, and the organization has been certified by BPN,” BPN spokesperson and Democratic Party politician Ferdinand Hutahaean told CNN Indonesia today.
Ferdinand said volunteer groups, including PEPES, work independently of BPN, but he defended the women from accusations of black campaign against Jokowi.
“They said what they felt and suspect that [the issue] might happen someday. So they were conveying their suspicions,” he said.
Jokowi’s running mate, Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) Chairman Ma’ruf Amin, denied everything the women said in the video.
“That’s slanderous and a hoax. Other than the hoax [in the video], there are also hoaxes saying the Ministry of Religion will be dissolved [if Jokowi gets re-elected], and other religious issues. We hope that people will not believe such slander and hoax,” Ma’ruf said yesterday, as quoted by Detik.
Since Jokowi was elected in 2014, he has never discriminated against Muslims in the ways that the women mentioned in the video. Conversely, despite running on a platform of anti-discrimination, the president has been criticized by rights groups for largely failing to translate his rhetorical support for human rights into meaningful policy initiatives to protect religious and sexual minorities.
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