T

he suspended governor of Banten Ratu Atut Chosiyah was sentenced to four years on Monday for bribing former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar with Rp 1 billion (US$85,353) to ensure local elections swung in the favor of her dynasty.

Meanwhile, in Yogyakarta a student was charged with defamation and insulting behavior and faced a maximum of six years in prison and a fine of Rp 1 billion.

This is another example of the contrasts in our justice system. The light verdict against Ratu (which literally means '€œqueen'€) Atut caused outrage and so did the case of student Florence Sihombing, known as Flo.

The latter tried to jump the queue at a gas station and blurted out angry comments on her Path account because she was told by an attendant to go to the back of the line.

Despite her repeated apologies and the appeal of Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X to forgive her, community groups reporting Flo to the police have not retracted their reports that said she had violated the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE Law).

Her insults, directed at the people of Yogyakarta, reflected an outburst that fell far short of what is expected of a graduate law student from a respected university.  

It was her university and its rector, Pratikno, who gave us a further lesson in education, as they approached the police, resulting in the delay of Flo'€™s detention.

Gadjah Mada University'€™s (UGM) ethics committee declared she had committed a '€œmoderate violation'€. UGM law school dean Paripurna Sugarda apologized for Florence'€™s comments and said they would evaluate '€œwhether we'€™ve taught the right values'€ as the education system '€œshould not only provide education and skills but also cultural values'€.

This rare statement should be the benchmark for all educational institutions amid reports of teaching staff and students implicated in harassment, rape, bullying and even murder, from primary schools to universities.

Too often there has been silence from reputable institutions in the face of such reports, as if they have absolutely no business in the conduct of their teaching staff and students.

What was overlooked in the Flo case was that all citizens continue to face the threat of criminalization under the 2008 ITE Law. Its vague clauses on defamation and insults remain effective despite calls to change them because they contradict the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

***

On Wednesday Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik was named a suspect for allegedly extorting state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina (whose director Karen Agustiawan recently resigned, insisting her reasons were personal), to pay an '€œIdul Fitri allowance'€ to members of the energy commission.

Jero, a high-ranking official of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s Democratic Party, is the third active minister in the current Cabinet to be charged with corruption. He follows former youth and sports minister and fellow party official Andi Mallarangeng and former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali.

Meanwhile, the police, who reacted furiously to the comments of National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Adrianus Meliala on corruption in the force, had to face reports that two officers had been arrested by the Malaysian police for drug abuse.

 And we also still face the unresolved murder of human rights defender Munir Said Thalib. Ten years ago on Sept. 7, he died after being poisoned on a Garuda Indonesia flight. He was on his way to the Netherlands to pursue his graduate studies.

The mastermind behind the killing continues to roam free and enjoys anonymity, while we are left to mull the circumstances of this extraordinary crime that took place in post-reform Indonesia.

Attempts to prosecute the case have seen off-duty pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto convicted, then acquitted, of the murder. Pollycarpus was supposedly motivated by his '€œpersonal resentment'€ of Munir.

The pilot was supposedly on intelligence duty aboard the aircraft, and despite a transcript of a telephone communication between Pollycarpus and then National Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief Muchdi P. Pranjono, the latter was also acquitted.  Muchdi'€™s boss at the time was former BIN chief Hendropriyono, now an advisor to president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo. Given this, the incoming president faces the daunting challenge of resolving Munir'€™s murder.

Munir'€™s killing is just one of many unresolved crimes, many of which Munir was at the forefront of investigating on behalf of victims and families.

                                                                      ***

The losing coalition members in the presidential election still insisted this week that they were engaging in silaturahim (keeping in contact), maintaining friendly ties with their former opponents. Observers hope that the need for political compromise will not include corrupt figures in the new Cabinet.  

Unexpectedly, hope for a new Indonesia may come in the form of a new judicial review request at the Constitutional Court.

Law graduates and a student are demanding changes in the Marriage Law, which they say violates the constitutional freedom of worship for each citizen by requiring that marriages are conducted based on respective religious rituals, making it legally impossible for people of different faiths to marry.

These individuals, in their 20s, have raised a taboo subject that will again test our maturity as a nation, much more so than the case of Flo.  

'€” Ati Nurbaiti