Defense Ministry's X Account Promotes Prabowo-Gibran; Palace Responds

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Defense Ministry has recently been in hot water for its post on X (formerly Twitter) that promotes presidential candidate pair Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka. On Sunday, January 21, the ministry uploaded photos of houses for the Indonesian Military soldiers on X with hashtags including #PrabowoGibran2024.

“PrabowoGibran2024 #PrabowoSubianto #MenhanPrabowo #KSAU #Kemhan #KemhanRI #TNIAU,” the ministry’s official X account, @Kemhan_RI tweeted on January 21. 

The post was flooded with comments from netizens protesting and questioning the neutrality of the state apparatus. They also mentioned the accounts of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).

In response to the case, President Joko Widodo or Jokowi’s special staffer coordinator, Ari Dwipayana, called on all ministries and institutions as well as the TNI and National Police to maintain their commitment to neutrality in the upcoming February elections.

“We must be aware that we are currently in the election campaign period, so neutrality must be strictly maintained by all ministries, institutions, including ASN (state civil servants), TNI-Polri,” Ari said before journalists at the Ministry of State Secretariat Building, Jakarta, on Monday, January 22.

When asked if there would be sanctions, Ari confirmed that an internal evaluation would be conducted at the Ministry of Defense.

Based on Tempo's monitoring on Monday, January 22, at 4:14 PM Jakarta time, the Defense Ministry re-uploaded the photos of the progress of the housing complex for the Indonesian soldiers in Natuna Regency, Natuna Islands, without #PrabowoGibran2024. The tweet was also flooded with comments from netizens who have already doubted the neutrality of the ministry headed by Prabowo Subianto.

MELYNDA DWI PUSPITA | ANDIKA DWI

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