You can find hypocrisy anywhere in the world if you know where to look. But it’s never too hard to find in the world of Indonesian politics.
In the above video (found by Rappler), the future regent (bupati) of the Ogan Illir Regency of South Sumatra, 27-year-old Ahmad Wazir Noviadi Mawardi, can be seen campaigning at a debate alongside his future vice regent, HM Pandji Ilyas.
Pandji can be heard in the video talking about the pair’s strong anti-drug platform, saying that drugs can “destroy the nation” to loud applause from the debate audience.
However, Pandji forgot to mention the fact that drugs can destroy political careers as well.
On Sunday, just about a month after the pair was elected into office, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) raided Regent Noviadi’s home. The raid ended with the drug enforcement agency taking the regent, as well as Vice Regent Pandji, into custody (Pandji was later released).
“Last night, BNN arrested the regent of Ogan Illir,” BNN Chief Budi Waseso told Tempo on Monday.
Budi said that urine testing performed on Noviadi showed that he had recently taken methamphetamines.
He also said that BNN had been investigating Noviadi for drug use for the last three months, based upon reports from the public.
As sad as this latest example of hypocrisy in Indonesian politics is, we can at least take comfort in the fact that Noviadi did not manage to avoid arrest because of his position and power.
In fact, during the raid, Noviandi’s father, Mawardi Yahya, who just happened to be the regent of Ogan Illir from 2005-2015, tried to prevent officers from arresting Noviadi, but was unsuccessful.
