Jakarta – Incumbent Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has expressed his disappointment at the objections his campaign visits to several residential areas have received, saying that it is a barbaric way to force him to withdraw his candidacy.
"Why do they use such barbaric ways? There is also a hoax message circulating, saying that on Nov. 18, there will be between 5 to 25 million people [taking part in an upcoming rally]. This country could disintegrate if they continue using such ways," said Ahok in Jakarta as reported by kompas.com.
Ahok, and his running mate Djarot saiful Hidayat, had faced objections when carrying out their campaign in several areas because of the religious defamation allegations against Ahok.
Ahok told his detractors to not vote for him in the Feb. 15, 2017 gubernatorial election if they did not want him elected. He stressed that elections were a peaceful way to elect a leader, in contrast to deploying mass protests, which risked public security.
"This is no longer an era for deploying large numbers of people [to demand things] as everything will be decided in the election. If in the past people used bullets [to decide a leader], now we use the ballot paper.
Ahok said he did not care about the rejection he was receiving for his visits to certain areas as they were being conducted not to garner votes, but instead only to evaluate the performances of his subordinates tasked with serving the people. (bbn)