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Central Jakarta resident claims intimidation by TNI to vote for Prabowo

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2014

Jakarta – A neighborhood in Central Jakarta where 90 percent of the population are of Chinese descent and Christians was visited by a sergeant from the military to check on their preferred presidential candidate.

Rifki, one of the residents whose home was visited by the man who claimed to be a sergeant from the local district-level military command, said that the man claimed that he wanted to renew data about eligible voters for the presidential election slated for July 9.

Rifki said that the man asked for his identity card and wrote down his identity data.

After writing down the data the man said, "You will vote for this one, right," as he showed him a piece of paper where he had written down Rifki's data and wrote that Rifki would vote for Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, a former Army general.

Rifki, who was surprised to see the piece of paper that said that he would vote for Prabowo, protested. "I was upset. So I told him to write whatever, but only God and I know who I will vote for," Rifki said as quoted by Kompas.com.

Rifki said his neighbor was also visited by the same man, and that being ethnic Chinese he was afraid of the man. "They were afraid. They didn't know the intention to gather the data, so they just followed whatever the man said. I could understand why they were like that. They were traumatized by the past," he said.

Rifki said that his neighborhood was a target of a mob attack during the 1998 riots, and the situation was very tense. "Maybe they are still afraid," Rifki said.

Gerindra deputy chief patron Hashim Djojohadikusumo, who is Prabowo's younger brother, denied that his party had deployed the Babinsa to convince eligible voters to vote for Prabowo.

He said the military had to maintain their neutrality and that if they intimidated the people to vote for Prabowo, it would only create problems for Prabowo. "The military has to stay neutral but their families like children and wife are free [to vote]," Hashim said.

When reporters asked him again about the deployment of Babinsa in several areas, Hashim reiterated that the military had to maintain its neutrality. "One thing is certain, the military has to stay neutral. Babinsa has to stay neutral, they cannot side with Joko [Widodo] or with Prabowo," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/c-jakarta-resident-claims-intimidation-military-vote-prabowo/.

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