Gunungkidul Noodle Seller Claims Legislator Shouted at Her Over Small Change
A noodle seller in Gunungkidul has claimed she was treated unpleasantly by a member of the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) who dined at her stall, alleging he shouted at her over small change. The vendor’s account went viral on social media. The incident reportedly took place at the Bakmi Mbak Tri Gading stall in Gunungkidul on Thursday evening. In the circulating narrative, the seller stated that such treatment had been repeatedly carried out by the Gunungkidul legislator.
Yuli (48), the younger sister of the owner of Bakmi Mbak Tri Gading VI, recounted the chronology of events. She said the incident began when the DPRD member arrived with a colleague. “So last night, a Gunungkidul DPRD member came to Bakmi Jawa Mbak Tri with his colleague. He came to eat here and has indeed been here several times before,” Yuli said when contacted on Friday.
Yuli explained that the legislator ordered two portions of food and two drinks. After finishing the meal, the DPRD member paid. “After the payment was made, we informed him that we had no one-thousand rupiah notes for his change. The change happened to be Rp8,000, so I replaced the Rp1,000 note with two Rp500 coins,” she said. Before handing over the change, Yuli claimed she apologised in advance for the coins. “I said to him before I gave the money, I apologised first, ‘I am very sorry, Sir, the change is in coins because there are no more notes in the drawer’,” she stated.
The legislator allegedly threw the coin change onto the table because he was unhappy with the money Yuli gave him. “But the money was eventually thrown onto the table and he said to me, ‘Is there no other small change or what, is there anything smaller than this?’ So I said, ‘I beg your pardon, Sir, I already apologised earlier. If you do not want it, I will exchange it for a Rp2,000 note’,” she recounted. Yuli was even warned by the legislator’s colleague not to look down on her guest. Yuli herself admitted she did not know her customer was a legislator. “As it happens, I do not live here and indeed did not know who he was initially. I held back my anger because I thought he was someone older than me. But after I said ‘I beg your pardon’, I had already apologised. I offered to swap the Rp500 coins for a Rp2,000 note,” she said.
The Gunungkidul DPRD member also allegedly shouted over the small change. Yuli admitted she was shocked and regretted that a public official would behave in such a manner. “In my opinion, that was unpleasant behaviour and it did not just happen last night. He had eaten here before, and on that occasion my older sibling was present. At that time, he spoke very impolitely,” she said. Yuli assessed the attitude of the legislator as arrogant. She felt belittled as an ordinary citizen. “Perhaps because we are ordinary people, he acted arbitrarily. He felt that we would just stay silent if trampled upon, stay silent if underestimated. That is the chronology,” she said.
Yuli stated that the behaviour of the Gunungkidul DPRD member had gone too far. She believes that as a people’s representative, he should not act in such a way. “This has been very excessive. Hopefully, this can be a lesson for everyone, for officials and others, that we ordinary people are not to be trampled upon. You are at the top because we are at the bottom,” she said. When asked for confirmation, the legislator declined to comment on the incident. “I cannot provide any comment,” he said briefly via telephone.