T

he government has denied rumors accusing President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s recent visit to the Anak Dalam tribe in Jambi of being staged.

Two allegedly edited photos showing the Anak Dalam people involved in dialogue with Jokowi have gone viral on some media outlets following an allegation that the photos are actually of the same person wearing different clothes.

State Secretary Pratikno repeated on Tuesday a statement he made on Monday, rebuffing the allegations by saying that the reason behind Jokowi'€™s visit to the Anak Dalam tribe was merely '€œto show that he was indeed keen to listen the voices of ethnic communities and tribes living in remote areas'€.

Jokowi, he added, had also instructed his staff to follow up on the results of his meeting with the Anak Dalam tribe.

Last week, during his trip to Sumatra and Kalimantan, Jokowi paid a visit to the Anak Dalam tribe living in Sarolangun regency, Jambi, in a move that made him the country'€™s first president to visit the Anak Dalam tribe.

Jokowi underlined the importance of paying serious attention to the Anak Dalam tribe. Over the last few years, the tribe'€™s land has been turned into oil palm plantations and the current forest fires have created health problems for the tribe. The tribe still predominantly lives in the forest.

Other than meeting with a group from the Anak Dalam tribe, most of whom still live in tents within the perimeter of a oil palm plantation located in the Bukit Suban village, Jokowi also paid a visit to a different group of Anak Dalam who have opened up more to the outside world. Jokowi inspected 15 accommodation facilities constructed by the local government for the group.

The Anak Dalam tribe, also known as the Kubu tribe or the Rimba people, often live in small nomadic groups. Around 1,000 members of the Anak Dalam tribe live in the Air Hitam district of the Sarolangun regency, mostly in the Bukit Duabelas National Park.

According to the President, some of the Anak Dalam people told him that they wanted to live in houses under certain conditions and leave their nomadic lifestyle behind.

Earlier this year and following the death of 11 members of the tribe in Jambi, who starved after their customary forests were turned into plantations, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that the nomadic Anak Dalam tribe had joined a government-sponsored settlement program to make it easier for them to access social welfare programs.

Pratikno, however, did not comment on whether or not the government would file a report to the police against those who were behind the edited photos and accusations.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said on Monday that the government would not file any report to the police, although Pramono also said such an incident should serve as a warning for those who intended to attempt any kind of character assassination against the President.

Khofifah also denied the accusations, saying that '€œthose [dialogues] were done in [two] different places and the [Anak Dalam] men were different persons'€.

According to Khofifah, the two spots were located separately, around 500 to 600 meters apart from one another.

'€œJokowi went there [to the second location] using a car,'€ she added.