Sandiaga Uno, running mate of Anies Baswedan and Jakarta’s future vice governor, is famous for being one of the richest businessmen in Indonesia. But as a politician, he has always presented himself as understanding the most pressing problems facing regular Jakartans, like declining population rates and culturally-insensitive parking meters.
But Sandi was caught acting in a distinctly elitist matter last Friday, when people found out that his motor convoy utilized the busway lane, which is only meant to be used by public transport vehicles.
Perhaps you’re thinking, well, maybe the vice governor-elect had some emergency to attend to, or at least some pressing political matter of dire importance.
Well, if you define attending your own election victory party as a “pressing political matter of dire importance”, then you’d be right.
Sandiaga and his crew were heading to Posko Cicurug in Central Jakarta to attend a celebration of his and Anies Baswedan’s victory in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, which had just been made official by the General Election Commission KPU earlier that Friday.
Due to the heavy traffic, the vice governor’s motorcade, including Sandiaga’s car, police escorts and media escorts, all entered the busway lane on Jalan Salemba Raya just before 5 pm on Friday (so during prime macet time). One of the police officers in the motorcade got the busway officer to open the lane to them. According to Detik, the convoy also passed through an intersection’s red light.
Sandiaga was set to greet his supporters and also be interviewed at the party on Jalan Cicurug in Menteng at 5pm, and thanks to his official shortcut, was able to make it soon after.
After thanking his campaign’s volunteers, Sandiaga did the interview and was questioned about taking the busway lane to arrive at the event.
“Huh? Before we were in the busway lane? No it can’t be, it’s not allowed, I didn’t want to, please remind me [not to enter the busway in the future],” Sandiaga said as quoted by Kompas.
Criticism against the future vice governor mounted quickly on social media, and by Saturday he was already making apologies to the media over the incident.
“From my deepest heart I’m sorry,” Sandiaga said as quoted by Tribunnews.
“My whole team and I must be aware that we really have to be role models now, role models for the people in Jakarta, so we have to set a good example.”
His running mate about the incident, but Sandiaga volunteered that his political patron, Gerindra head Prabowo Subianto, told him not to make similar mistakes in the future.
When asked about Sandiaga’s shortcut, current Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama noted that he never used the busway lane even if there was heavy traffic as it needed to be kept sterile to allow not just public transportation buses but also emergency vehicles such as ambulances to go as fast as possible (however government vehicles are legally allowed to enter the busway lanes at the police’s discretion).
Ahok also noted that President Joko Widodo does not use the busway lane unless absolutely necessary for the same reason (having seen photos of Jokowi’s car stuck in traffic, we can believe that he really does).
On the other hand, Sandiaga once suggested a ban on cars worth Rp 3 billion or more as a serious solution to dealing with Jakarta’s traffic.
