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Jokowi's son-in-law in hot water for overzealous bodyguards

“This is what we call a mayor who acts like a president,” an Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) representative said.

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan
Mon, April 19, 2021

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Jokowi's son-in-law in hot water for overzealous bodyguards

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meta charset="utf-8">Journalists in Medan, North Sumatra, protested on Thursday against recently elected Medan mayor Bobby Nasution and his bodyguards for allegedly driving away journalists seeking to interview Bobby, who is the son-in-law of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

During a protest at the Medan mayoral office on Thursday, journalists displayed banners that read, “Bobby’s bodyguards should not block journalists’ work. The mayor must not inherit colonial ways.”

Hani Ritonga, a journalist with Tribun Medan, said the mayor’s bodyguards drove her and other journalists away as they were waiting to interview Bobby on Wednesday. She said members of the Medan Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), the police and the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) told her to leave the mayor’s office.

While it is common for regional leaders to obtain protection from Satpol PP and the police, Bobby has extra security officers from Paspampres because he is Jokowi’s son-in-law. A 2014 defense ministerial regulation requires Paspampres to provide protection for the president’s family members, including children-in-law.

Read also: Assault of 'Tempo' journalist raises fresh concerns about press freedom

The incident was recorded on video. The footage was later uploaded to social media and went viral.

“We were forced to leave despite the fact that we waited for hours to interview the mayor,” Hani said during Thursday’s protest.

Liston Damanik of the Medan chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said the protest reflected Medan journalists’ frustration that they were often prevented from interviewing Bobby.

Since the mayor had taken office, Liston said, he had often kept his distance from journalists asking about the city administration’s work. Paspampres personnel were often the ones who blocked the interviews.

“This is what we call a mayor who acts like a president. Interviewing the President might not even be as difficult as interviewing the mayor,” Liston said.

He urged Bobby to be more open with journalists and not to feel threated by them, as the mayor could use interviews as occasions to disseminate information about his administration’s work.

Liston noted that journalists in Indonesia were protected by law while performing their work under Article 8 of the 1999 Press Law.

Medan administration spokesperson Arrahman Pane, who was present during the protest, said the city administration regretted the incident and “apologized” for it.

In a statement issued on Friday, Bobby said he had never rejected any interview requests from journalists. He later called Wednesday’s incident a “miscommunication” between his bodyguards and the journalists.

“I’m doing my job as mayor; the journalists are doing their job looking for news; and Paspampres personnel are also doing their job as mandated by law,” Bobby said, adding that he did not want people to dwell on the past.

Read also: What political dynasty? Jokowi's son-in-law says bid for Medan mayor is for development

He said he would build a press room at the mayor’s office to accommodate journalists covering issues pertaining to the city administration.

Bobby and Aulia Rachman were inaugurated as Medan mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, on Feb. 26 after winning the 2020 mayoral election.

The Bobby-Aulia ticket, which was backed by eight political parties including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), won the election with 54 percent of the vote against the 46 percent garnered by incumbent pair Akhyar Nasution and Salman Alfarisi. (kuk)

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