Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has been called some pretty racist names in the past, including “Chinese pig” by members of Jakarta’s City Council.
Now some people are accusing Ahok of racism for giving a kind of cattle from Jakarta the name “Betawi Cow.”
Betawi is one of the first names given to the area that we now call Jakarta, and it is also the name for people native to this area of Java.
Some time ago, Ahok was visiting a cattle farm called PT Karya Anugerah Rumpin. Asked to give the new breed of cow the farm was developing a name, Ahok decided upon USB (standing for “Untuk Sapi Betawi” or “For Betawi Cow”).
A group calling itself Masyarakat Anti Rasis (Anti-Racist Society) said the name was offensive to the Betawi people. They are planning on holding a protest today at City Hall to denounce the name and to force Ahok to issue an apology to the Betawi people.
It seems Ahok can’t even begin to wrap his head around this newest accusation against him.
“I think this is just political. Now look, I want to ask, if you called cows from Madura Madurese cows, is that racist to Madurese people? How about Sumatran tiger? Javanese Rhino? Balinese Cow? Sumbanese Cow? How is that racist?” Ahok said, at City Hall today as quoted by Kompas.
Ahok said they were trying to create a kind of cow unique to this area of Java. Just like cars from Jakarta have a B license plate that stands for Betawi, cows from this area should also share that identification.
The Anti-Racism society said it will protest Ahok this morning with around 500 people.
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