The spokespeople for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto have been having to explain a lot of their leader's more outlandish behavior recently. But compared to his propensity for pulling off his shirt in public, spinning the former general's angry outburst in a video that has gone viral since yesterday is probably going to prove a much harder task.
The incident took place around midday while Prabowo was making a campaign visit to Cianjur, West Java, yesterday. Videos of it were posted to Twitter by around noon and quickly went viral.
In the video, Prabowo, can be seen standing through his car's sunroof as it drives past his supporters. Suddenly he flashes anger toward a man in a black and orange batik shirt, slapping at his arm, pointing his finger, angrily yelling and then finally grabbing his wrist to pull it off the car.
The brief burst of anger seemed, to some netizens at least, to show a crack in Prabowo's campaigner facade revealing the severe former general beneath. But the Gerindra chairman's campaigners are trying to spin it as an example of his fierce protectiveness towards the people.
The head of communications for Prabowo's campaign, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, took to Twitter to explain the incident.
"While Pak @prabowo was with the people of Cianjur. He warned against the use of excessive force by security guards pushing back at the women who wanted to approach him. The security apparatus in batik had to realize the confusion and warnings of Pak Prabowo. So stop the slander."
Later, Danhil shared another video of the incident, taken from a different angle, in which Prabowo can be heard yelling "Jangan dorong rakyat" (Don't push the people) at the man in the batik shirt.
"'DO NOT PUSH THE PEOPLE'. Those were the words spoken by Pak @ prabowo loudly to the abusive security officer who pushed the people who wanted to shake hands with him. Meanwhile, liars and hoax spreaders continue to spew this slander with full confidence but they are still safe from legal action."
Pretty soon, reposts of the video featuring the hashtag #JanganDorongRakyat were being Tweeted by pro-Prabowo accounts. catetttt!#JanganDorongRakyat #JanganDorongRakyat #JanganDorongRakyat https://t.co/INJFSg05DY – abhe syach (@abhesyach) March 12, 2019