With Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama having gained the backing of several major political parties (possibly including that of PDI-P), his critics have started to get even more outspoken recently with ridiculous threats about what would happen if Ahok were to be re-elected in 2017. After musician/wannabe politician Ahmad Dhani promised to leave Jakarta if Ahok wins (please let it happen), now the President of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), Said Iqbal, has said that millions of workers would go on strike should the incumbent win.
“Millions of workers will strike as a form of our opposition to Ahok, who does not deserve to lead Jakarta,” Said said at Pasar Ikan, in Penjaringan, North Jakarta on Wednesday as quoted by Tempo.
In his speech, Said argued that Ahok has failed to bring prosperity to Jakarta. He said that based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Jakarta, in the first half of 2016, the poverty rate in Jakarta increased by 16,000 residents, which Said attributed to Ahok’s anti-labor policies.
While it’s true that BPS did record a .14% in the poverty rate from July 2015 to July 2016, data from Bank Indonesia shows that poverty rate in Jakarta was 8.84% in March 2015 and dropped nearly by half, to 4.711%, in March 2016, a drop largely attributed to the poverty reduction policies pushed by Governor Ahok, including the creation of numerous low-cost apartment buildings (rumah susun) to house the poor and free use of the TransJakarta busway system for those same people.
So yeah, there is certainly reason to doubt what Said says.
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