In an apparent attempt to counter the claims by former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Hendropriyono about the state of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s mental health, the candidate’s younger brother, businessman Hashim Djojohadikusumo, has insisted that while Prabowo was tough he was also honest and fair.

Speaking at a public gathering in Jakarta on Thursday, the son of the legendary economist Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, recalled his childhood with his brother Prabowo.

“My elder brother is very tough. When I was still small, I was often beaten,” said Hashim, as quoted by kompas.com.

A group of Prabowo’s supporters have reported Hendropriyono to the police for claiming Prabowo had serious mental-health problems. Meanwhile Lt. Gen. (ret) Luhut Panjaitan has also questioned Prabowo’s personal character. The two generals, both of whom are supporting Prabowo’s rival, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, in the election, were previously commanding officers of the former son-in-law of former president Soeharto.

Meanwhile, an Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) member has strongly urged the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Moeldoko to publicize the results of his investigation into reports that a village supervisory non-commissioned officer (Babinsa) had instructed residents in a subdistrict in Central Jakarta to vote for Prabowo and his running mate Hatta Rajasa in July’s presidential election.

Negative and smear campaigning continued to flare in the contest between the Gerindra Party candidate Prabowo and Jokowi, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) presidential hopeful, as the official campaign period entered its third day on Friday.

In the past few days, Central Java residents have been witness to a text-message smear campaign targeting Jokowi, in which he has been accused of being a Christian and of Chinese descent.

Several text messages were sent from anonymous numbers, while others decided to forward the texts to their friends and relatives.

“I received this text message from my friend. I initially believed it 100 percent because it seemed legit, especially when the end of the text message called on Muslims to unite,” said Sohibul Ihsan, a resident of Sanggreman village in Banyumas regency, Central Java.

Meanwhile voters in another Central Java regency, Demak, reported an attack on the Prabowo campaign.

The attack manifested itself in damage to dozens of banners promoting Prabowo — Hatta along Java’s northern coastal highway (Pantura) in Demak.

Meanwhile, both sides continued to hit the campaign trail across the country, with Prabowo making scheduled visits to several locations in East Java in an effort to win votes in the region, regarded as a heartland of support for his rivals Jokowi and his running mate Jusuf Kalla.

Jokowi returned to his hometown, Surakarta, Central Java, on Friday, where he used to be mayor, after campaigning in Papua.

Dalam usahanya untuk mengklarifikasi klaim dari mantan kepala Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN) Hendropriyono mengenai kesehatan mental capres Prabowo Subianto, adik bungsunya, Hashim Djojohadikusumo menegaskan bahwa selain kuat, Prabowo juga jujur dan adil.

Berbicara pada suatu acara publik di Jakarta pada hari Kamis, putra dari ekonom legendaris Sumitro Djojohadikusumo mengenang masa kecilnya dengan sang kakak, Prabowo.

Kakak tertua saya sangat kuat. Pada masa saya kecil, saya sering dipukuli" Kata Hashim, seperti yg dicuplik Kompas.com