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Jokowi fumes over persistent PKI rumor
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo visits a housing project in the Citarum River upstream area in Bandung regency, West Java, on Feb. 22. (Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is irritated that some people still accuse him of being affiliated to the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), years after the rumor was first spread during his campaign in the 2014 presidential elections.
“Up to the present there are still many people saying ‘Pak Jokowi [is] PKI’,” he said in his speech at an event in Bogor regency, West Java, on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.
“The PKI was disbanded in 1965, I was born in 1961. So that means I was a toddler [member] of the PKI. That’s so ridiculous and false.”
He said that at times he wanted to be angry about the rumors, but realized that it would not be productive. “But the problem is that there are still people who believe it even though it is logically false.”
Jokowi reiterated the need for the public to combat hoaxes and fake news that contain hate speech. His administration has launched various policies to curb rampant fake news that spread sectarian sentiments on social media.
