Jokowi Clarifies Negative Issues about Him

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Antara) - Presidential candidate Joko Widodo, better known ans Jokowi, has clarified various negative issues about him in the run-up to the July 9, 2014 presidential election. Speaking before thousands of his supporters at a gathering on Sunday in the South Kalimantan provincial city of Banjarmasin, Jokowi said all the negative issues addressed to him by his political rivals were totally baseless. "I feel like laughing to hear an issue from short text messages and some other media which say that I am a Singaporean descendent. It is really untrue," he said with a chicle. Jokowi then clarified that his father was originally from Karang Anyar village, some 30 km from Solo, and his mother was from Boyolali, also some 30 km away from the city of Solo, Central Java. "Am I from Singapore? Which part of Singapore," Jokowi asked the audience at the gathering. He also clarified another issue which has said that if he were elected president, he would abolish the policy of certification funds for around 3.5 million teachers in Indonesia. "It is illogical! How could we abolish the funds for the teachers, the spearhead of education in the country?. If needed the certification funds for them should be increased," Jokowi noted. (*)