Former Jakarta Governor Basuki “BTP” Tjahaja Purnama hasn’t said much regarding his plans for his future after his release from prison yesterday, but we know that one of them is being a Youtuber.
After staying mostly low-key yesterday, BTP found time to release the first vlog on his new Youtube channel, “Panggil Saya BTP” (“Call Me BTP”), referring to the fact that the man formerly known as Ahok now wants to be referred to by his initials to indicate that’s he’s become a changed person after his time in prison.
Clocking in at almost 9 minutes and 30 seconds, the video mostly shows a conversation between BTP and his eldest son, Nicholas Sean, as they are driven home just after BTP’s release from prison. They talk about various things revolving around his time in prison and the things he wanted to do after he got out, such as watching films at the cinema and going back to his hometown of Belitung Island.
He also mentions that he might upload a rehearsal video of the band he formed in prison, BTP (Band Teman Penjara or Prison Friends Band).
BTP looks particularly excited when he finds out they are going to drive on the Semanggi Interchange (Simpang Susun Semanggi), construction of which was initiated during his time as Jakarta governor. It was the first time BTP could see the new road in its finished state because, by the time it opened to public, he was already in prison. He says he wants to drive on the interchange himself, but alas, his driver’s license is already expired.
“Don’t get in trouble again, you just got out of trouble,” Nicholas jokingly says to remind his father not to drive.
At the end of the video, BTP thanks his supporters.
“Thank you for your support and prayers. Today, January 24, I’m already home. If you want to know the lessons I learned during my time in prison, subscribe to my channel,” BTP says to the audience.
Jakarta’s former governor was released from prison yesterday after nearly two years (he was given a 3.5-month sentence reduction due to good behavior and holiday remissions) after being convicted on blasphemy charges that fanned fears over religious intolerance in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.
BTP — the Indonesian capital’s first non-Muslim governor in half a century and its first ethnic Chinese leader — had been a popular politician who won praise for trying to clean up the traffic-clogged megacity and clamp down on corruption.
But his downfall came quickly after comments he made on the campaign trail during a re-election bid saw him accused, and later convicted, of blasphemy towards Islam.
