A thug named Iwan "The Crude Face" Bopeng was intimidating the people at the voting booth. He was Jakarta's incumbent Governor Ahok's hard-liner follower.
"I chopped off an army soldier, let alone you little punk!" the Crude Face spat on the crowd.
The show down triggered a nation-wide anger. "The Crude Face" immediately became a media social celebrity. Many Indonesian Army personnel responded. So did some semi-militia men.
Detecting a forthcoming danger over his life, "The Crude Face" released an apologetic video. He begged for mercy.
The apology was turned down. Everyone was looking for him. He became the most wanted individual. Yet, he disappeared into thin air. Till now, nobody knows where he hides. Undetected. Rumor has it, the top brass of the ruling party hid and protected The Crude Face. It was a dramatic scene from the first round of gubernatorial local elections in Jakarta.
Sending troops of thugs and organised genkster squads to voting booths and street corners is another modus operandi to intimidate the voters. More importantly the widespread systemic giving away of "sembako" - cheap basic food, clothing and household supplies to many of the urban poor in the hopes of 'buying' votes for Ahok. In many pseudo-democratic third world countries elections, Money politic and manipulation is the common practice.
Seeing the developments on the ground since the Jakarta gubernatorial election till the coming the Presidential Election, it is only certain that the so called Iwan "The Crude Face" Bopeng tactics of intimidation, thuggery and cheating would escalate in scope and magnitude to all 805.068 voting booths that represent the 185.084.629 voters across the Indonesian archipelago.
Democracy does not mean an election alone, but a fair, credible and participatory election that are cornerstones of democracy.
The essence of the April 2019 General Election is the people's struggle against the incumbent President Joko Widodo regime’s lackluster performance of 5 % economic growth.
President Joko Widodo's electability is falling down dramatically. More and more Indonesians are becoming aware of the scaremongering and the constant Islamophobic branding of the opposition in a scorched earth-win at all cost strategy employed by a certain clique within the regime.
The lust for power by the current ruling coalition has left an impression to many, that comes the time for vote counting this April, certain men in dark suite will resort to use manipulation and stage-managed election fraud.
The symptoms are obvious. For instance, national election committee's choice of using cardboard ballot boxes that are fragile to destruction; or the bogus legal persecution of those that are critical of the government that have landed some in jail. Plenty of opposition billboard campaigns were vandalised.
Perhaps the most suspicious of all - over 15 million problematic registered voter ID that are still disputed till today, 1 month before election day.
The risk escalates when all of the State's apparatus are not in neutral-zone position. Effectively rendering true democratic processes useless.
The citizens of democratic world have the obligation to ensure the credibility of Indonesian's general election.
Thus, having election observers, both national and foreign, are crucial in ensuring a credible and acceptable election.
Penulis adalah aktivis Komunitas Tionghoa Anti Korupsi (Komtak)
