I am saddened with the state of my country.
It seems people here are more concerned with "defending god" than fighting the corruption that has been eating their lives.
Ahok exposed major corruption which involves buying UPS for schools for a "paltry amount" of about 500.000 USD PER UNIT.
Ahok cut off some fantastic "comprehension" seminary budget in the amount of MILLION of dollars (he writes "comprehend your grandma!" on the proposal).
National Auditor gives "Disclaimer" status for Jakarta's financial report due to Ahok's plan to buy a patch of land at BASE TAX PRICE (people here sell land MULTIPLE times of base tax price) to build a Cancer Hospital. He had to face Anti Gratification Committee and nothing has come out of it because there is no problem except for the National Auditors's claim. The hospital's construction is now unclear. Also, other provinces with "Without exception" audit status had their governor caught for corruption.
Some politician smears Ahok's strong stance to move people from slums to subsidised Apartments because it's "inhumane" to move them to place with better sanitation, free transports, subsidised schools, and cheap maintenance fee without rental fee (less than 1 usd per day iirc). The relocation is also to build walls around the rivers where the slums are located to prevents flooding from the rivers.
A politician was caught receiving money from Real Estate developer which suspected have some relation with Jakarta Reclamation project. Some people tried to tie the case to Ahok due to his signing of the reclamation permit, although the project itself is a continuation of previous governor, a national project, and has been modified by Ahok to provide more public facility.
When Ahok was going to run for Governor, he went for independent route. He manages to collect more than 1 MILLION ID and signatures which was required for independents. But somehow the parlement then required each of the 1 MILLION signatures to be verified one by one within TWO WEEKS. It was impossible so Ahok had no choice but to be nominated by political parties. He's still an Independent because he doesn't join any of the political parties nominating him. He also requires all parties supporting him to not request anything from him other than to do his job as proper governor.
Ahok's campaign to become governor is ALL funded by people who support him. I think this is the first ever in Indonesia. It is all transparent and accountable with strict collection method and documentation. Meanwhile his competition has to take money out of their own pocket plus collecting from political parties' cash.
Ahok routinely stream his meetings in his office through youtube. Through the streams you can see that he is very detailed and knows his way in handling the program/regulations. In some you can even find him exposing major irregularities which prompts him to get VERY MAD and RUDE. Some of these irregularities involves major conglomerates with strong political history. He once said "Be usual with the right, don't right the usual".
Instead of receiving money for compensation of real estate development, Ahok told the developer to build infrastructures, so everything would be faster and less leaky. Off course the compensation are independently valued for objectivity.
He upgraded the local bus system with new, European made bus. Previous governors imports China (some used) bus.
Roads are way smoother, more lightings are installed, and flooding although still happens due to torrential rain / river overflow are handled quickly and can recede faster.
When the "Blasphemy" event happened, no one in the audience where he gave speech was offended at all. There was NOTHING happened until someone uploaded the video with EDITED transcript which omitted some words. This immediately used by some of his vocal opponents together with religious leaders to rally mass, and the perception has just been bad from there.
Throughout the campaigning days, religion and ethnicity issues are being used extensively. The mosques will have the preacher says not to vote for non-muslims, and some even openly refusing to pray for Ahok supporters should they die. Intimidation banners also sprung up in Minority areas. The social medias are filled to the brim with hoax and intimidations.
During the 2nd round election day there was an effort by the hardliners to organize mass on each of the voting booth to "Escort" the election. They even had an app to organize it called "Tamasya Almaidah" in play store. This includes inviting people from outside of Jakarta with their target of 100 Muslims per booth to ensure "proper" voting is conducted. It gained some traction and on the election day it can be seen that some people with Muslim attributes hanging around the voting booth. Some also comes from local "religious" mob group. The police manage to disperse some of these groups in some area, but can only stood watch in some other area since they are doing nothing but stood there and "watch". During the voting hours, the mosque are also actively praying though loudspeakers in effort to "remind" the voters.
To win the election, a nominee must held 50%+1 vote. Ahok won the 1st round of election with 43% of vote (best of 3 candidates), but lost the 2nd round with his vote remaining the same.
This sentence is another hurting blow and lots of people are saddened. I am sure wherever Ahok is after this, there will be lots of people to welcome him because he is a true person who fight for social justice.
In the meantime I hope the government can use this momentum to be assertive against the extremist and the true corruptors which are actually killing the country.
