TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A watchdog group naming themselves the People's Coalition Against Injustice filed a criminal complaint against President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to the National Police's Criminal Investigation Unit for allegedly disobeying Covid-19 health protocols.

According to one of the people representing the group, Kurnia, the group believed that the President had failed to give a proper example of good health protocol implementation while being in a crowd.

"During [President Jokowi's] visit to the East Nusa Tenggara [NTT], as a leader, he instead created a crowd and ignored health protocols by handing out souvenirs from on top of his vehicle," said Kurnia at the Criminal Investigation Unit headquarters on Thursday, February 25, 2021.

Kurnia said the group laments the President's decision that eventually created a crowd when the country is currently still battling with the Covid-19 pandemic, and eventually decided to file a police complaint against the President.

This event was recorded and became viral in social platforms which showed a crowd surrounding President Jokowi's vehicle. The president was seen wearing a black face mask as the crowd packed around his vehicle and was seen partially exiting his vehicle from the sunroof to wave his hand to the crowd, and threw a number of souvenir packages to the crowd.

The State Secretariat Spokesperson Bey Machmudin said that the incident was not planned and that it was the consequence of the high enthusiasm of the NTT locals who wanted to see President Jokowi in person and welcome him. Machmudin asserts that the President constantly reminded the crowd to wear their masks properly.

ANDITA RAHMA | DEWI NURITA