A strange era

The candidacy for Jakarta's governorship is heating up by the day, with up to 38 candidates, including the incumbent Sutiyoso.

Among others he is supported by the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR), who have strangely appointed him as hero of the fight against vice -- because he turned the Kramat Tunggak prositution center to an Islamic Center.

To appoint Sutiyoso a hero is clearly strange, moreso one against vice. For it is he who launched the idea of building a gambling center. He should even account for the tragedy of July 27 1996, a bloody incident at the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party when Maj.Gen. Sutiyoso was Jakarta military commander. He's lucky he hasn't gone to jail for this case.

It is wierd that a Governor without an achievement has the nerve to move forward as candidate. Stranger still, he claims to have been nominated as candidate. To appoint him hero and make him governor again with government support is tantamount to choosing the New Order. Then no one should say we still live in the reform era, including Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The era which we live in is one which is bizarre. It is an era for leading figures to imitate Sutiyoso, an era of upside down logic.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta