TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A PDIP politician Hendrawan Supratikno denied that his party instructed the installation of banners depicting the picture of Puan Maharani around refugee camps of Mount Semeru eruption.

Hendrawan argued that the banners could possibly be hung by third parties and that the party did only know of the welcome banner. “We were only informed by the committee that there would only be welcome banners,” he said on Wednesday, December 22.

The House of Representatives (DPR) member of Commission II also said that the local committee did not coordinate with the House members.

Recently, banners depicting the picture of DPR speaker Puan were installed near areas affected by the Semeru eruption. Bearing motivational words, the banners also displayed photos of residents who were most likely victims of the eruption.

A political observer from the Indonesia Political Review, Ujang Komarudin, assessed that the installation of the banners in the Semeru area was a fatal blunder as it was counter-productive to what the party attempted to do.

“If PDIP did provide assistance to the victims of Mount Semeru eruption and then put up the banners, people might think it's just a politicization of the disaster,” Ujang said of the banners of Puan Maharani.

Read: Puan Maharani Billboards Not Head Start on Presidential Campaign: PDIP

MIRZA