Video shows Indonesian presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo drinking ice tea, not alcohol
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 1, 2023 at 10:40
- Updated on February 7, 2024 at 16:49
- 4 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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A video, which shows Ganjar taking a sip from a small glass bottle, was posted on TikTok on July 16, 2023.
Indonesian-language text on the video says "ALCOHOLIC DRINK" and "Mr Ganjar is cool", alongside laughing emojis.
The video attracted more than 4,200 views.
Alcohol is considered forbidden under Islamic law and while drinking is not prohibited in the world's largest Muslim-majority country -- except in Aceh province, which imposes Islamic law -- the act itself is frowned upon by conservative Muslims.
The video circulated weeks after Ganjar travelled to the Islamic holy city of Mecca on a hajj pilgrimage -- and ahead of the February 2024 presidential election (archived link).
Indonesia's largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) nominated Ganjar as its candidate for the polls.
Ganjar, who is currently Central Java governor, will face off opposition from Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan (archived link).
The video racked up more than 41,000 views in total in similar posts on TikTok here and here, on Facebook here and here, as well as on SnackVideo.
Some social media users appeared to believe the footaged showed Ganjar drinking alcohol.
"May Allah protect us," a Facebook user commented. "Please don't let us have a leader like this, flaunting vices."
"That's why I will choose Mr Anies," a TikTok user wrote.
However, the claim is false.
Reverse image searches and keywords searches on Google found the original video of Ganjar sipping from the small glass bottle posted on a YouTube channel called TASS Bukan Kantor Berita, which translates as "TASS Not News Agency" (archived link).
The video's Indonesian-language title reads: "Ganjar Pranowo visited ArtJog when Butet Kartaredjasa was launching a book (July 9)".
ArtJog is an arts festival in Yogyakarta on Indonesia's Java island, while Butet Kartaredjasa is an Indonesian artist who launched a book at the event (archived links here and here).
Indonesian broadcaster MetroTV reported on Ganjar's visit to the festival (archived link).
At the 3:30 mark of the original video, a long-haired man sitting next to Ganjar hands him a bottle.
Several people off camera are heard telling Ganjar: "Ice tea". Butet says in Javanese: "This is ice tea, this ice tea" and jokingly tells people not to "twist" the fact that the drink was ice tea.
Ganjar then drinks from the bottle and grimaces."Extremely sweet!" he says.
At the 4:10 mark, he points to a red label on the bottle and says "Panser Ice Tea".
Some of the videos in the false posts (below left) has flipped the original video (below right).
Tri Agus Susanto Siswowiharjo, who runs the TASS Bukan Kantor Berita YouTube channel, confirmed that he filmed the video.
"It was not an alcoholic drink, it was ice tea," Tri Agus, also known by his initials TASS, told AFP on July 31, 2023.
Panser Ice Tea, or Es Teh Panser in Indonesian, is a bottled ice tea produced by a café at Jogja National Museum, where the arts festival was held (archived links here and here). Apart from tea, other listed ingredients are: lemon grass, pandan leaves and sugar.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the close-up image of the bottle in the YouTube video (left) and on the Instagram post (right):
In some of the false posts, the video begins with another clip of Ganjar talking to the camera and saying in Indonesian: "Spread what we have done as far as possible."
The original clip, posted on YouTube on May 19, 2023, shows him speaking to a volunteer group (archived link). There is no mention in the footage of drinking alcohol.
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