PDIP Denies Vandalizing Democrat Party Attributes

TEMPO.CO, Pekanbaru, Riau - The Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle (PDIP) denied that it had vandalized Democrat Party attributes carrying the picture of its general chairman and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).

"We strongly denied what SBY has said. There were no incidents like dropping SBY and Democrat Party attributes, as they have accused us of," PDIP politician Kapitra Ampera stated at a press conference on Saturday evening.

He noted that PDIP has no problem with SBY as he is neither a legislative nor a presidential candidate, adding that PDIP had always upheld its civility and honor.

Kapitra said that SBY has always asked people to uphold civility in politics, and what he has done was not civil.

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Kapitra also remarked that President Joko Widodo has long planned to conduct a working visit to Riau, but there had been a lot of attributes of Democrat Party and SBY in the location.

"In terms of ethics, it was impolite and unwise. As a big figure, he must have a big heart. If he wished to be here, he could have come earlier or later to avoid possible unfavorable incidents," he pointed out.

He added that PDIP was not disturbed and would not care about the activity of Democrat Party, but they must have understood that Jokowi`s visit could attract a lot of people, like that of SBY.

"This was where potential of conflict could happen in the harmonious community. So actually, it was SBY who had brought conflict to Pekanbaru, while he had accused us of being the ones who had dropped the attributes and other symbols," he revealed.

The secretary of the Riau regional board of PDIP, Syafaruddin Poti, said there had not been any order to vandalize other political parties` attributes. "We have never issued an instruction (to do it). We have confirmed with those who are in charge of attributes that none of them had done it," he stated.