Campaign heats up, mudslinging continues

JAKARTA. Two weeks before the July 9 presidential election, the two opposing camps of Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa and Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla have turned up the heat by directly attacking each other.

On Tuesday, the legal team of the Prabowo-Hatta ticket filed a complaint with the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) against Jokowi, who they alleged had campaigned within zones restricted from political campaigning — the National Monument (Monas) and the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle — last Sunday.

According to a spokesperson for the legal team, Habiburokhman, the two areas are supposed to remain free of any campaign activities as stipulated in Jakarta Gubernatorial Decree No. 1389/07/17 and the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) Regulation No. 39/2013.

Jokowi was further accused of a violation for presenting his vision, mission and programs, as well as asking people to vote for him, outside of areas designated for campaigning.

“Jokowi is a governor, although he is a non-active one, who should have understood the rules in his own region. How could a governor not understand his own decree?” Habiburokhman said.

A member of Jokowi’s campaign team, Arif Budimanta, rejected the accusation, saying that the event was in fact a fun walk.

“It’s a normal activity that Jokowi often does. He went for a morning jog and greeted his supporters. Coincidentally, there were lots of supporters who organized the event,” Arif said.

Tensions also increased between the two camps with former Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) commander and chairman of the Hanura Party Gen. (ret) Wiranto calling the Prabowo’s camp bluff on threatening him with violence following his move to expose details of Prabowo’s alleged involvement in the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists during the tumultuous events of 1998.

“There are people who protested my move with harsh words and even threats,” Wiranto said after being questioned by Bawaslu on Tuesday.

“Threats will not make me back down. I will continue speaking the truth,” he said.

Prabowo’s campaign team has filed a complaint with Bawaslu over what it called a smear campaign against its presidential candidate.

During his questioning, Wiranto said that he revealed Prabowo’s alleged role in the kidnapping due to pressure from many quarters, which wanted to prove the statement made by Prabowo during a televised debate that he received orders from his superiors to carry out the kidnappings.

“That’s why I decided to make the statement. Actually my explanation has been very proportional. If [Prabowo] disagrees, then he could just tell me which part of my statement is not correct,” he said.

Further increasing the tensions, the Youth and Sports Ministry decided to break up a recent discussion hosted by former 1998 student activists. Personnel from the National Police could also be seen dispersing participants at the event venue.

The activists were scheduled to hold a discussion on the possible revival of the New Order regime if Prabowo is elected president.

Activists later accused the ministry of playing politics based on the fact that the ministry is led by Democratic Party politician Roy Suryo. In recent weeks, the Democratic Party has leaned toward the Prabowo-Hatta ticket.

Ministry spokesperson Gatot S. Dewa Broto rejected the accusation, saying: “We gladly [offered to] host the event in the beginning. But later we got the message that politics was involved.”

The presidential race has also claimed other casualties, with the Golkar Party announcing on Tuesday that it had dismissed three of its lawmakers for supporting Jokowi instead of complying with the party’s stance to back Prabowo.

A similar decision was made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, which moved lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul from House Commission III overseeing legal affairs to Commission IV overseeing plantations for his public support of Jokowi. (Margareth S. Aritonang and Hans Nicholas Jong)