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Jokowi hits back at allegations of fake diplomas
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Refuting rumors: Then-president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo speaks with the media on April 3, 2024, after a departure ceremony of the National Disaster Management Agency at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
F
ormer president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has appointed a team of legal counsels to challenge a lawsuit accusing him of falsifying his high school and university diplomas, a rumor which has been circulating since as early as 2022.
In recent weeks, talks have been resurfacing on social media about Jokowi having a fake diploma as an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Forestry of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta. Jokowi reportedly enrolled in the university in 1980 and graduated in 1985.
A legal practitioner named Muhammad Taufiq filed a lawsuit with the Surakarta District Court on Monday to contest the legitimacy of Jokowi’s diplomas and, by extension, of his illegal administration as then-mayor of Surakarta in Central Java from 2005 to 2012.
Besides targeting the former president, Taufiq also sued the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) Surakarta office, the city’s SMAN 6 state senior high school and the university.
The plaintiff noted that the lawsuit served to “educate the public” about the issue.
“We are not looking for who would win or lose in court, but we aim to seek justice and [uncover] who is right and wrong. That is the basis of our [lawsuit],” he was quoted by kompas.com as saying on Tuesday.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Jokowi’s legal counsels hit back in a press conference on Monday, claiming that the former president’s diplomas have been repeatedly verified.
