Image has been edited -- genuine photo shows Indonesian president holding painting of himself
- Published on September 23, 2023 at 07:57
- Updated on February 7, 2024 at 16:57
- 6 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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The photo was posted on TikTok here on August 25, 2023, where it has been shared more than 270 times.
The photo depicts Jokowi posing for the camera clutching what it looks like a framed picture of a smiling Anies.
"It's you who deserves to be Indonesia's president," reads text overlaid on the photo.
Anies is currently endorsed by the Nasdem Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) in his bid to become president in the 2024 election (archived link).
Jokowi's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), has backed another candidate, Ganjar Pranowo, the governor of Indonesia's Central Java province (archived links here and here).
The same photo has been circulating in other TikTok videos including here, here and here, and in Facebook posts such as here and here.
But the photo has been doctored.
A reverse image search on Google found the real photo was posted on Instagram in June 2020 by Eko Sulistyo, the commissioner of Indonesia's State Electricity Company who once served as a deputy to the presidential chief of staff under Jokowi (archived links here and here).
"59 Years President @jokowi. Keep going and be healthy always," reads the caption of the post, dated June 21, 2020.
The Instagram photo clearly shows the nation's leader holding a framed painting of his own face.
View this post on Instagram
The genuine photo of Jokowi previously appeared in a post on Facebook page KataKita on January 1, 2020, alongside a photo of Jokowi's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming, holding the same painting (archived link).
According to an Indonesian-language caption of the KataKita post, a resident of the Indonesian city of Solo named Muhammad Arrifai painted the portrait and asked Gibran to give it to the president.
Below is a screenshot of Katakita's Facebook post:
Eko, who was part of Gibran's campaign team, confirmed to AFP that Gibran received the painting from a Solo resident while the president's son was campaigning for the city's mayoral election in 2020.
The artist was "a fan of Mr Jokowi", Eko told AFP on September 17, 2023. "Gibran then gave the painting to Mr Jokowi."
Eko also said he received the photo of Jokowi posing with the portrait several months before he posted it to Instagram on Jokowi's 59th birthday (archived link).
On January 2, 2020, a local Solo newspaper published an interview with the artist, Arrifai -- who was then a high school student -- and his mother about the president receiving his painting from Gibran (archived link). "I did not expect Mr President valued my artwork and he was willing to receive the painting like that," Arrifai said.
AFP also found that the image of Anies seen in the misleading posts is taken from an illustration posted on Facebook on March 26, 2023 by an account that frequently posts pro-Anies content (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered photo (centre), the original Anies illustration (left) and the genuine photo of Jokowi (right):
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