VIVAnews - Every Indonesian knows Sujiwo Tejo. He is known as an eccentric puppeteer, an ethnic musician, an actor and a writer. Tejo is also known as a stubborn guy.
A little-known fact about him: When it comes to the elections, Tejo, who was born in Jember in 1962, has always chosen not to vote. For years, he has been pessimistic about the results of the elections. Therefore, he decided to stay away from everything related to the elections.
But it was his past. This year there has been a radical change in the long-haired guy’s mindset. Tejo has been enlightened to leave neutrality at the upcoming presidential elections.
It was his parents who told him so.
“My parents said, don’t live this life just for yourself,” Tejo, who has cut his long hair for a role in the movie titled ‘The President Broker’, said.
Now, he becomes an optimistic man. He assumes everybody has to have a political preference. But the preference has to be genuine and is not based on other people’s agenda.
“The reason is that I want this year’s elections to be better. I want Indonesia to be better”, the former ‘Kompas’ daily newspaper journalist said on Friday, July 3.
So, who would Tejo choose on July 8?
“JK (Jusuf Kalla)-Wiranto,” he said.
To Tejo, the JK-Wiranto duo has busted the myth which assumes that only the Javanese can lead Indonesia. The presence of JK as a representative of Bugis ethnic group and Wiranto as a representative of the Javanese has shattered the myth.
Tejo said the past success of the Sriwijaya kingdom in ruling the country was not only because of the Javanese. They were helped by other ethnic groups as well.
That is why Tejo disagrees with the myth. He expressed the contrary by saying that the power of the nation lies in its variety.
Personally, Tejo likes JK’s original style.
“He speaks freely,” he said.
What Tejo was trying to say is that the way JK speaks in public is always entertaining, genuine, and conveys rational points.
“I can’t imagine being friends with someone who’s conventional and over disciplined”, he said.
Therefore, Tejo is certain that JK and Wiranto are serious in developing Indonesia in the next five years. One of the forms of his loyalty to the candidates, Tejo and Ipank Wahid created a political campaign advertisement. Tejo wrote the script while Wahid made the visuals.
The idea to create the ad was obtained on June 8, 2009. After the concept was approved by JK and Wiranto’s team, they started to work on it on June 27.
“After the advertisement appeared, the result was not bad. There were some people who changed their mind and considered to chose JK,” the Bandung Institute of Technology drop-out said.
However, there were some who criticized the ad. For instance, why Tejo would have to say for his mother, Sulastri, he would no longer being neutral. “They said if we swear to something, we have to do it for God and not for anyone else. But I consider my mother as someone who is really close to me,” he said.
He told VIVAnews how he would express his love to his mother.
When he was a child, before he left the house he always prostrated in front of the door to the north and south. Then, he asked his mother to step over his body.
--
Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
