National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen Boy Rafli Amar called on all elements of society to avoid being so easily provoked by religious and racial issues ahead of the simultaneous regional elections (Pilkada).
“We appeal to all people not to focus on religious and racial issues. The community should not be easily provoked by the issue of SARA (ethnicity, religion, and race),” Boy Rafli Amar said here on Monday evening.
Amar expects the elections to run smoothly and peacefully.
In addition, he urged pairs of regional head candidates and their campaign teams not to use religious and racial issues in their campaigns.
“The issue of SARA must not be used during the campaign,” he remarked.
The campaign team should disseminate information and opinions to the public carefully in an attempt to prevent conflict.
“Pairs of regional head candidates and their campaign team should provide enlightening information. They should not use words that can ignite emotions,” he said.
Indonesias fifth president Megawati Soekarnoputri had earlier asked why words used by Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) have always been interpreted with negative sentiments.
“Why are (the words of Ahok) always so negative?” Megawati, who is general chairwoman of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), asked at a news conference in Blitar, East Java, on Monday (Oct. 10).
Megawati was in Blitar, together with Ahok and a number of other PDIP leaders, making a devotional visit to the grave of her father, the countrys first president Soekarno in the East Java city.
She said more than a few people were offended by the impolite words used by Ahok.
“Many people get emotional, saying Ahok talks too much. And then I said, even to the president, Mr Jokowi, that Ahok does have a big mouth; otherwise, he would not be from Bangka,” she noted.
She said people of different ethnic groups had typical characteristics. The Javanese are known to be soft spoken.
Ahok, who belongs to no political party, is the candidate nominated by the PDIP and a number of other political parties to contest the next gubernatorial election in February 2017.
Ahok is now at the center of controversy for saying words allegedly insulting to Islam when he was on a visit to the Thousand Island in Jakarta Bay recently. He had to publicly apologize after he was reported to the police.
