Tabloid Founder Accused of Joko Smear Goes on the Defensive

Jakarta. The founder of a tabloid accused of smear campaign against presidential candidate Joko Widodo has denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing that an overly pliant media had damaged Indonesia’s ability to properly scrutinize its presidential candidates.

“This [the tabloid] is my active participation as a citizen to support the presidential candidate — we are about to choose a country leader that will rule 240 million people,” the founder of the “Obor Rakyat’ tabloid, Setiyardi Budiono, said on Saturday. .

Setiyardi refuted the allegation that the tabloid he founded was a black campaign against the presidential candidate from the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

‘We have to scrutinize the candidates’ track record, if you don’t like being criticized you shouldn’t be a presidential or vice presidential candidate,” he said.

Setiyardi who is a commissioner of state-owned plantation company PTPN XIII (Persero), also countered those who said the tabloid had been distributed in a manner that verged on the clandestine. 

“If it were a dubious tabloid I would not have out my real name on it,” he said.

Obor Rakyat — a free publication distributed to several Islamic boarding schools, mosques as well as several religious leaders by mail — recently published reports saying that Joko Widodo was a Chinese Christian.

Earlier on Friday, Setiyardi’s partner who also wrote articles for the tabloid, Darmawan Sepriyossa, editor of Inilah.com, said said he agreed to join Setiyardi in publishing the tabloid because of what he described as a lack of critical reporting of the Jakarta Governor’s record.

He said that Setiyardi wanted to publish the tabloid, because they were both supporters of Jokowi, but were disappointed because that he had vacated his position as Jakarta governor.

Member of Joko’s campaign team, Firman Daely, rejected Setiyardi’s defense, emphasizing that the articles could easily have destroyed Joko’s reputation.

“So while you still have the time please repent,” he told Setiyardi during the discussion.

By Ezra Sihite on 04:07 pm Jun 14, 2014