Episode 63: Puput-Vero-Ahok (Who Tells Her Story?)

Dialogika Podcast

In this episode, we catch up on the latest on this news about Ahok's engagement and upcoming wedding with his new girlfriend, Puput Nastiti Devi, a former policewoman, bodyguard, and aide to Ahok's ex-wife Veronica Tan (with whom he filed for divorce in April 2018). We discuss how Ahok's narrative has taken over the coverage of this story — and the ramifications of that to the lives of both Puput and Veronica, as well as Ahok's own post-prison future. We also talk about how both women have been marginalized in their own narratives in the public eye, and how the media has covered this news in a very patriarchal and patronizing way. We break all of this down with our good ol' "flimsy but earnest logic" and wrap up by saying that we should always strive to understand these kinds of stories from a critical feminist angle, because there are a lot of difficult issues — of gender inequality, of power dynamics, of marginalized women, etc. — that are deeply embedded in these narratives, even if on the surface they're look like gossip.