President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday hit out at an unknown person or persons who sent a text message to the press late last week containing serious and damaging allegations about the President and his party.
“Let’s be chivalric and face each other for the sake of law and justice,” Yudhoyono said at Halim Perdana Kusuma military airport in East Jakarta before departing on a visit to Kalimantan, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
The sender of the text message, which was sent from a Singaporean number, claimed to be Democratic Party member Mohammad Nazaruddin, a suspect in a bribery case who left the country for Singapore last week a day before a travel ban against him was issued.
The message implicated Yudhoyono in a number of high-profile scandals, including allegations about the Democratic Party and the Bank Century scandal, which cost the state trillions of rupiah in losses.
Yudhoyono called the sender of the text message a “coward for not showing themselves”.
He said the rumors stemming from the message had gone too far.
“Once or twice the slander has gone too far, so for the sake of my reputation and because it is my right, I need to give an explanation,” Yudhoyono said.
