As much as I’m proud of becoming an Indonesian, this is really embarrasing. What happened was really the mirror of how corrupted our country is. The system has been corrupted. A sandal thief can be put in jail for 5 years, while corrupting people are put in jail for 6 months or 1 year. Now, a governor who really wants to fight for corruption, makes his government transparent by uploading the government meeting to YouTube, and works really hard to improve Jakarta and makes the government “clean” is sentenced with 2 years in jail. The right becomes wrong, the wrong becomes right.
The fact that this might happen out of hatred towards him as a minority (a Chinese and a Christian) is really saddening. I literally cried in the middle of work the moment I read about him being sentenced 2 years in jail.
For you who are confused, here is the issue and the start of the riot.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/jakarta-christian-governor-to-face-blasphemy-trial-over-islam-insult-claim
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indonesia-police-name-jakarta-governor-as-blasphemy-suspect/2016/11/15/97024438-abab-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/world/asia/jakarta-governor-ahok-basuki.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
http://time.com/4572734/indonesia-basuki-blasphemy-islam-intolerance-jakarta-governor/?xid=tcoshare
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37996350
These are only 5 out of many articles about it out there. For you who are confused on what happened in 1998, well, it was a nightmare in Indonesian history. But, in a nutshell, it was when Chinese women were raped and killed, Chinese stores and businesses were burnt, and a lot of Chinese people were killed. Chaos was everywhere. And the fact that riots also happened during his campaign as the candidates for Jakarta governor is really saddening. The reason? Well, it could be because of political reasons, some of it might be because of religion and ethnicity discrimination. The result of the trial makes me ashamed. For God’s sake, I won’t blame the judge though. For you Indonesians, please understand his position. He might be afraid of the radical Islam group. He might be the one to get the short end of the stick if he let Ahok go.
What’s beautiful is...... those who want to fight for him. Those who love him no matter what his ethnicity and his religion is. Those who come and unite for him to show him how sad we are at the result of the trial.
The campaign is literally all over the world and all over Indonesia. I’m crying. I can’t be there as I’m out of town and I work until late at night. This is what I get as an update.
Note: This is only the pictures of “1000 candles for Ahok” in Surabaya (Tugu Pahlawan) And I guess it is similar like this in other cities and countries.
This is the picture from a drone (bird view)
Credit to and photograph by: @singasong17
When people fight for justice, no matter what your race is, no matter what your religion is, no matter where you are, no matter whether you are reach or poor, no matter your gender is, we are united and we demand the same: JUSTICE.
Wish I could be there :(
