Ganjar: Now People Want To Take A Photo With Me Why Are You Afraid?

Presidential Candidate Number 3 Ganjar Pranowo (Photo: DOK ANTARA)

Presidential candidate (candidate) number three, Ganjar Pranowo said many people were afraid to take pictures with him after he ran for the 2024 presidential election. Especially from those of Civil Servants (PNS). "I sometimes feel strange, myself, now people want to take photos with me, I'm afraid," said Ganjar during a dialogue with the Central Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and the Press Council at the Press Council Building, Central Jakarta, Thursday, November 30. This condition is different from his experience when he visited Yogyakarta. At that time, there were civil servants intending to take a photo with him. However, Ganjar refused and reminded that there are rules for civil servants to take pictures with candidates for presidential and vice-presidential candidates to be sanctioned. Because, he is considered to have violated the neutrality of state employees. "Why are the people afraid? I think when I arrived, there were mothers, 'Mr. Ganjar took a photo, Mr. Ganjar took a photo', he chased me, I saw him a civil servant," he said. "(I said, red) no. I remember that, later when it comes to the rules," added Ganjar. However, the civil servant still insisted on taking a photo with Ganjar. In fact, he removed the symbol of civil servant for the moment. From his experience, he realized that society is now very difficult and limited to taking pictures with him. Even the former Governor of Central Java joked that people were afraid of photos because his face was scary. "I think my face is like a ghost. Maybe all candidates too," he said. For information, the government prohibits the photo pose of state civil servants (ASN) uploaded to social media to maintain the neutrality of ASN ahead of the 2024 General Election. This rule is contained in the Joint Decree (SKB) of five state institutions concerning the neutrality of ASN.

The decree was signed by the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB) Abdullah Azwar Anas, Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian, Plt. Head of the State Civil Service Agency (BKN) Bima Haria Wibisana, Chairman of the State Civil Apparatus Commission (KASN) Agus Pramusinto, and Chairman of the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Rahmat Bagja in September 2022.