Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama obviously has his critics, but sadly many of them only focus on his race and religion.
The Protestant Chinese-Indonesian governor has been attacked many times by hardline groups for who he is instead of what he’s done or doing for the city. The latest of these bigoted attacks surprisingly came from a student of the prestigious Universitas Indonesia (UI), Boby Febrik Sedianto, who created a video to try and launch a campaign to get the public to reject Ahok’s bid for re-election in 2017.
Boby, an activist for GEMA Pembebasan (Students’ Freedom Movement), called on viewers to #TolakAhok (#RejectAhok) and #TolakPemimpinKafir (#RejectInfidelLeaders), quoting the holy Quran to justify his argument that Muslims are prohibited from choosing non-Muslim leader.
He then went on to say, “Ahok is not only an infidel, he has also wronged the people.” According to Boby, Ahok is the reason behind Jakarta’s supposed recent surge in poverty levels (there are opposing studies regarding this, with the National Statistics Agency saying there’s been a slight increase in poverty levels in Jakarta this year, whereas Bank Indonesia says it has actually decreased by half), as well as a supposed recent rise in crime “everywhere” and corrupt dealings in the Sumber Waras Hospital case and the Jakarta Bay reclamation project.
UI quickly distanced themselves from the discriminatory video saying that Boby and GEMA Pembebasan’s views do not represent those of the university. They have also sanctioned Boby for violating a campus life code prohibiting discrimination against others on the grounds of race, religion, gender, and even political orientation.
“This student was given verbal and written sanctions. [He] regrets and knows his fault, and he’s ready to issue a public apology,” said Egia Etha Tarigan of UI’s Media Relations department to Merdeka.
Ahok today responded by saying that while he doesn’t want to meddle in UI’s affairs, he recognizes that UI is funded by taxpayers’ money and that he doesn’t wish for that money to be funding racist students like Boby.
“If need be he should move to the Middle East if he wants to move to a political party so that he can bring down the Pancasila. Go ahead,” Ahok said today, as quoted by Detik.
But Boby wasn’t the only university student to recently launch a racist tirade against Ahok. Other GEMA Pembebasan members are still uploading anti-Ahok videos on the group’s Youtube channel. This one, which features a member from the Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ) chapter, was freshly uploaded just this afternoon:
On the one hand, it’d be a dark day for democracy if college students were silenced for espousing extreme political views. But if the ideas they are supporting are clearly discriminatory towards others, then it should be the goal of any respectable institution of higher education to teach them the value of tolerance and diversity.
