JAKARTA (JAKARTA POST/ANN): The Indonesian government has rushed to defend Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya after politician Amien Rais said Teddy is not fit for the job due to his alleged homosexuality, which he deemed a moral threat to the nation and President Prabowo Subianto.
In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel on April 30, Amien alleged that the Cabinet Secretary had become “personally closer” to the President beyond their work relationships.
“Teddy is gay, like the people of Lot in biblical times,” said Amien, who founded the conservative Muslim party Ummat in 2021.
He urged Prabowo to “cut himself loose from Teddy’s dangerous grip” and replace him with a “normal figure” focused on serving the nation.
The video quickly made the rounds on social media the next day. However, it was soon taken down with a note saying it was “not available on the country’s domain due to a legal complaint from the government”.
Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid shortly responded on Friday, describing that the video contained “hoaxes, slander and hate speech” aimed at the “character assassination” of the President.
“The video’s narrative is an attempt to demean the state leader, has no factual basis and is part of a provocative effort to create public unrest,” Meutya said in a statement, adding that it would take further steps under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law regarding slander and defamation.
The Government Communications Agency (GCA) head Muhammad Qodari also echoed a similar sentiment and expressed his “concern” over what he called Amien’s susceptibility to misinformation.
“The basis of his accusation was an account that contains a song entitled ‘I’m Not Teddy’, […] which you can see on the poster’s account that it’s solely for entertainment purposes, though there may be political motivations, too,” Qodari said.
Neither Teddy nor Prabowo has publicly addressed the issue. Ummat Party’s secretary Ansufri Idrus Sambo said the party would be ready to defend Amien should anyone bring him to court, Tempo reported on Saturday.
Amien currently chairs Ummat Party’s advisory council. The party backed Prabowo’s then-rival Anies Baswedan in the 2024 presidential election before voicing its support for the President after his landslide victory.
The party failed to win enough votes to send representatives to the national legislature in the same year. Amien established the Ummat Party in 2021 following his departure from the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid condemned Amien’s video statement as discriminatory, saying: “There is no scientific link between lesbian or gay sexual orientation and the inability to lead nor that it damages public morals”.
He however also said that the communications ministry’s removal of the video sidestepped the issue and only focused on “defamatory” attempts instead. — JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
