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Election rhetoric heats up
Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, in particular, has stepped up his fiery oratory, lambasting the “bastards” who were “raping the motherland”.
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Indonesia's presidential candidate for the upcoming general election Joko Widodo takes pictures with his supporters during his first campaign rally at a stadium in Serang, Banten province, Indonesia, March 24, 2019 (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
W
ith less than a week to the end of the campaign period, rival presidential camps have escalated their rhetoric, with both candidates shedding their previous nonconfrontational stances and going on the offensive in an attempt to shore up votes.
“I think electoral considerations have caused the candidates to change the way they campaign,” Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher Arya Fernandes told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, in particular, has stepped up his fiery oratory, lambasting the “bastards” who were “raping the motherland”.
“Our country is sick, the motherland is being raped, our people’s rights are being stepped on. A handful of people, elites in Jakarta, they are carelessly ruining the nation, they are […] Can I speak a little harshly here, Pak?” he said in a mass campaign event in Yogyakarta on Monday.
“There’s only 10 days left [to the end of the campaign] — they are bastards,” he continued to cheers from the crowd.
Prabowo repeated the same rhetoric in a campaign speech in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Tuesday.
“Brothers and sisters, in my opinion, our country is sick. The motherland is sick,” he said.
