Jakarta – The head of Ciledug district has apologized after a video of him shouting at a volunteer as evacuations took place in the flood-stricken district in Tangerang, Banten, caused a Twitterstorm.
Twitter user @Oji4712 posted on Friday a video of the district head, Syarifudin, scolding a volunteer for collecting data on flood victims on Jl. Wisma Tajur in Ciledug without coordinating with local authorities.
"There's a subdistrict head here, all local authorities are present and we've been wet since yesterday. Who are you? Suddenly showing up here only with data and no equipment," he said in the video.
As of Monday morning, the video has gained more than 35,000 retweets and 2.500 comments, with most lambasting the district head's behavior.
"He should have just coordinated [with the volunteer], he didn't need to shout like that," said Twitter user @jibotu.
After the video went viral, Syarifudin released an apology on Saturday.
"I apologize for the miscommunication. When the incident happened, our team was focused on distributing aid to residents that were affected by the flooding," his statement said as quoted by kompas.com.
Syarifudin said that at the time, he was exhausted from handling evacuations for two days and could not control his emotions.
"There was no intention to dissuade anyone from volunteering. However, in that kind of situation, everything should be carried out under a single command," he added.
He claimed that the volunteer made the field personnel feel "uncomfortable" and created "confusion" during the evacuations.
Nevertheless, the district chief also thanked locals and volunteers who helped.
"We would like to express our utmost appreciation to the people, volunteers and residents who lent a hand during flood relief efforts in our district," he said.
He also released an apology video through Instagram account @infotangerang.id on Saturday.
However, the apology apparently was not enough to satisfy some netizens. "You should apologize to the man you scolded, that's the right thing to do," said Instagram user @ryannuari93. (mpr)