TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has endlessly issued clarification on the issues and allegations that accuses him of being involved in the extinct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and people who accuse him of being captured in vintage pictures of PKI members taken in 1955.
“Look at this picture when the PKI Chairman in 1955 campaigned for the general elections, it’s DN Aidit giving a speech, [some suggest] I am the person below him [in the picture]. I wasn’t even born then,” said President Jokowi while showcasing the photograph in question during an event in the Pondok Gede Hajj hostel in East Jakarta, on Wednesday, April 25.
Furthermore, he explained that the social media accusations had been circulating for the past four years which accuses him of being one of the people in the crowd listening to DN Aidit giving a speech.
“I was born in 1961 and PKI was disbanded in 1965. I was 3.5 or 4 years-old back then, you think there’s a toddler PKI member? [The accusations] are just plain illogical,” said the seventh Indonesian President who further suggested that the picture might have been doctored to resemble him.
Furthermore, President Jokowi asserted the importance of focusing people’s energy and time on improving the country, not wasting time on slanders and defamation.
ANTARA
