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wo ethnicity groups reported public advocate Farhat Abbas to the police over an alleged racist remark he made toward Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama on Twitter.

“We have reported Farhat for violating articles in the 2008 Law on the elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination and the Information and Electronic Transactions Law,” Young Betawi Intellectual Community chairman Ramdan Alamsyah said on Thursday.

The laws carry a maximum sentence of five and six years imprisonment, respectively.

Farhat had commented on Ahok’s statement on special license plate numbers for the governor and deputy governor of Jakarta via his Twitter account @farhatabbaslaw. He said that Ahok had protested the sale of private license plate number B 2 DKI by the police for public use, and added “Whatever the license plate, [he is] still Chinese!”

Kompas.com reported that Farhat had apologized for the remarks through his Twitter account, and praised Ahok for his wise reply.

“I apologized to Ahok today. I respect him as he wasn’t angry and remained composed,” Farhat said. “If he [Ahok] thinks my remark was racist, he shouldn’t be a deputy governor.” However, Farhat said that he did not regret making the statement.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia Chinese Muslim Association also reported Farhat for the same issue on Thursday. “His tweet was a remark filled with hatred against a certain ethnic group,” said association chairman Ramadhan Effendi,famously known as Anton Medan.