TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Editorial: Too soft on pedophiles
For many, justice was delivered when defendants in two criminal cases involving children were found guilty and sentenced to prison on Wednesday
Change Size
F
or many, justice was delivered when defendants in two criminal cases involving children were found guilty and sentenced to prison on Wednesday.
Pudjiono Wahyu Widianto, a Muslim cleric in Semarang, Central Java, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for marrying a minor. Davis Suharto was given a 20-year sentence for raping five elementary school students in Bali.
The punishments have made us sigh in relief to certain extent. Our judicial system, despite its struggle to regain public trust amid bribery allegations, has demonstrated commitment to protect of children.
However the verdicts appear too lenient because the two convicts have ruined their victims’ futures. Light punishments may send the wrong message to rapists and pedophiles that they can continue their evil acts.
Our children, the next generation, live in a world far different from that of our childhood decades ago and therefore appear more vulnerable to crimes than we were. We have heard of teenagers who were abducted or taken from their parents following a rendezvous with their online friends.
The threats to children also take the shape of television broadcasts and electronic games that promote violence.
The 2003 law on child protection was enacted in response to our children’s susceptibility to many forms of violence. As far as the Pudjiono case and the serial child rapes in Bali are concerned, crimes of that type could have taken place in the children’s homes, where they should have received the maximum protection.
In the illegal marriage involving Pudjiono, poverty was the root problem that cost a 12-year-old girl her childhood and perhaps her dreams. Her parents could not resist the temptation of the wealth that the rich cleric had offered them.
Poverty is also behind rampant allegations of pedophiles who target street children across the nation.
Whatever the cause, we are responsible for protecting our children, rather than relying on the law and law enforcement officers. The more we care for children, the safer they will be.
