Bamus Betawi Urges Ruhut Sitompul To Apologize For Posting Meme Photos Of Anies

PDIP politician Ruhut Sitompul. (YouTube screenshot)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Betawi Deliberative Body (Bamus) Riano P Ahmad urged PDIP politician Ruhut Sitompul to immediately apologize for his tweet about Anies Baswedan's photo which included Betawi's words in his photo caption (caption).

The reason, said Riano, was that Ruhut's attitude seemed to be about to clash between children from various ethnic groups in the country through a photo of Anies in traditional clothing from one of the tribes in Papua.

"Therefore, we Betawi residents ask Ruhut to apologize to the Betawi community for bringing up the Betawi name in spreading hoaxes," Riano said in a statement in Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Friday, May 13.

Riano himself admitted that he did not accept it because in his tweet, Ruhut also dragged the Betawi people to spread the news which he called hoax.

"We, Bamus Betawi, are very angry, Brother Ruhut is spreading hoax news by writing in his Tweet the name Betawi. Betawi people don't like to spread false news that leads to SARA issues and fights against each other," said Riano.

Furthermore, Riano regretted Ruhut's act of attacking Anies with an 'edited photo', considering that Ruhut is a media literate public figure.

"As a senior politician, Ruhut has very broad access to first check whether the photos he posted are edited or really original photos. Of course, Ruhut can easily check directly with his fellow police officers or check it on the google search engine, Is it true that Anies visited Papua in traditional clothes as pictured or not? Except, Ruhut really wanted to corner Anies," said Riano.

For that, he said, Bamus Betawi fully supports the police in investigating the motive behind the case of spreading hoax news by Ruhut.

Riano admits that he is worried that if Ruhut's case is not prosecuted, in the future other memes with insults to other public officials will appear.

"We believe that the police will process it immediately," said Riano. It is known that former Democratic politician Ruhut Sitompul was criticized by many for his uploads on social media Twitter which were considered not only to insult ethnic groups in Papua by distributing photos edited by DKI Governor Anies Baswedan wearing traditional Papuan clothes. , but also considered harassing by abusing Betawi words.

"Ha ha ha, Betawi people say don't be afraid X Sip," wrote Ruhut in his Twitter account @ruhutsitompul, Wednesday, May 11.

Ruhut Sitompul himself has been reported to the police by the Commander of the Patriot Revolutionary Commander (Kopatrev) Petrodes Mega MS Keliduan to the Polda Metro Jaya because he is considered to have SARA elements and harasses ethnic groups in Papua, especially the Dani Tribe.

The Head of Public Relations of the Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Endra Zulpan also confirmed the report and said that it was being studied by the Directorate of Special Criminal Investigation (Ditreskrimsus) of the Polda Metro Jaya.

"Every report we must study first," he said.

The report has been registered with the LP Number: LP/B/2299/SPKT/Polda Metro Jaya, dated May 11, 2022.

In the report, Ruhut Sitompul was accused of violating Article 28 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 45A paragraph (2) of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning amendments to the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 11 of 2008 regarding Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE).