For those of you who may not be familiar with Jakarta City Council Vice Chairman Abraham “Haji Lulung” Lunggana, he is a rather colorful character. He is known for, among other things, his rivalry with Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, his lime green Lamborghini, being a major suspect in multiple corruption cases and his resemblance to a certain cartoon character.
He is also fond of making rhetorical bets that involve cutting off his own ears.
His latest ear slicing shenanigans involves a promise to lop off his lobes if Ahok decides to run as an independent candidate in the 2017 Jakarta governor’s race.
“I will slice this, my ear, if he wants to be independent,” Lulung said on Saturday as quoted by Kompas.
In April, Lulung promised to slice off his ear if Ahok sued the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) over supposed discrepancies in their Sumber Waras Hospital land purchase audit report, but quickly backed out of the promise, saying that it was only good for two days.
However, this time Lulung specified if Ahok decided to run as an independent at any point during the registration period for the governor’s election, he would go through with his ear-ectomy.
“As long as the registration period, if he signs up as an independent, I will cut both of them off,” Lulung said.
Lulung might very well get to keep his ears and his promise. Given accusations of fraud against Teman Ahok, the volunteer group that has collected 1 million KTP ID cards in support of Ahok’s independent run, as well as unrealistic new election rules that would make it extremely difficult to verify all of those KTPs, Ahok may be forced to run as part of a political party (several have already pledged to endorse him).
But even if Ahok is able to overcome those obstacles and does choose the independent path, there’s probably as good a chance that Lulung will cut off his ears as there is of Gerindra party politician Habiburokhman jumping off of the top of Monas.
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