Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of people in Cirebon regency, who were victims of a cheap rice scam, have threatened to abstain from voting in the West Java gubernatorial election slated for April 13.
Reports gathered Thursday said the threat was made because authorities would not help them recover the Rp 1.7 billion (US$188,000) defrauded by the organizer of the cheap rice program, who claimed to be campaigning for candidates Danny Setiawan and Iwan Sulanjana.
The 4,500 victims of the scam have requested help from the Cirebon municipal council, the municipality and Golkar Party's regional executive board a number of times.
"We have requested help from them repeatedly, but have not been responded to seriously. None of them are willing to help us, so we won't use our voting rights and we'll become members of golput," said one of the victims, Yatno, from Kesunean village, Lemahwungkuk district.
Golput, short for golongan putih (white group), is a term to describe a group of people who refuse to support or vote for any political party or leadership candidate.
The victims protested at the Cirebon municipal council on Tuesday. "In the protest, we conveyed to the reputable councilors we would boycott the election if they didn't care about the fate of us commoners," said another victim of the scam from Kejaksan district, Ruslan.
Thousands of victims of the scam besieged the Cirebon municipal council, demanding assistance to recover money stolen by rice traders who claimed they were from the candidates' campaign team.
They also rallied at the Golkar Party office for the regional executive board, demanding it take responsibility for the scam because the con men claimed to be part of its campaign team.
The scam took place Feb. 26. The Cirebon Police detained a suspect, Taufik, from Cangkring village, Kejaksan district, believed to be the mastermind of the scheme.
Taufik was able to walk away with Rp 1.7 billion in cash, collected from around 4,500 people who had given him their money to buy cheap rice. Most of the people came from Lemahwungkuk and Kejaksan districts, where widespread poverty exists.
According to Ruslan, he was tempted to buy the cheap rice as it cost only Rp 63,000 for a 25-kilogram sack of rice, far below the normal price of Rp 112,000.
"To get the rice, we were asked to deposit our money first. We trusted them because they claimed to be members of the gubernatorial campaign team," he said.
"They used the names of the candidates Danny Setiawan and Iwan Sulanjana. However, we did not receive the promised rice. Instead they took our money," said Ruslan.