Anies Baswedan Explains His Controversial Pribumi Remark
17 October 2017 16:42 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The term pribumi (native Indonesian) said by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan during his speech at City Hall last night drew criticism from the public. People criticized the use of that term and accused it of being driven by a racial sentiment.
Anies Baswedan immediately issued an explanation to avoid a further misinterpretation of his statement. He said that the term pribumi he mentioned referred to the era of colonialism that Jakarta experienced in the past, which he argued, had the greatest impact compared to other Indonesian cities.
Read: Anies Baswedan Emphasizes Future of Jakarta Natives
“Who witnessed the Dutch colonialism first-hand? Jakarta,”Anies explained. “Look at other rural areas, they are aware of the Dutch existence [in Indonesia] but did they witness it first-hand? No, they did not. It was the residents of Jakarta who experienced it.”
The former Education and Culture Minister once again emphasized the context behind the use of the term was to describe the colonial era. He accused online news agencies in misunderstanding the content of his speech.
Anies Baswedan mentioned about ‘suppressed native Indonesians’ and their fight against colonialism during his speech in front of his supporters at the Jakarta City Hall right after his inauguration at the State Palace.
The use of the term pribumi and non-pribumi has been banned from further use by Presidential Instruction No. 26/1998.
Larissa Huda
