No, this video clip does not show Jakarta governor's shifting his support to Indonesia's president ahead of an election

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 31, 2019 at 07:00
1 min read
By AFP Indonesia

Multiple Facebook posts have shared a video they claim shows Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan switching his support to Indonesian president and former political ally Joko Widodo ahead of April 2019 elections. It is actually a clip of Baswedan from five years ago when he was a campaign spokesman for Widodo during his first presidential campaign.

The posts, for example this one on January 28 which has been viewed 1,300 times, have a caption saying: “Anies’ testimony. Please see all facts, Mr Jokowi is still the best candidate for president.”

The video clip itself starts with text that reads: “Anies has shifted support to Jokowi, leaving the Prabowo coalition speechless.”

Screenshot of the misleading post.

Baswedan is now an ally of Prabowo Subianto, a retired army general who is challenging Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, in the race to lead the world's biggest Muslim majority nation.

Here is a 17 December, 2018 article in the IDN Times headlined: "Attending Gerindra Party's national conference, Anies says he supports the Prabowo-Sandiaga ticket"

Subianto chairs the Gerindra Party, which was a key supporter of Baswedan in his successful 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election bid.

"God willing, what happened in Jakarta [Anies' gubernatorial election victory] will also happen at the national level," Baswedan is quoted as saying in the article, in comments that were widely covered in the Indonesia media at the time, for example here, here and here.

The video itself shows Baswedan questioning why critics were attacking Widodo's credentials as a Muslim while praising Jokowi as “competent, clean and having a good track record”.

Using digital verification tool InVid, AFP has confirmed that the video in the posts was taken from a clip Baswedan uploaded to YouTube on June 22, 2014. It was titled “Anies Baswedan: Don’t vote based on your emotion”.

At that time, Baswedan was a spokesman for Widodo’s presidential campaign, according to this report by The Jakarta Post.

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