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Activists slam Jokowi orders to curb spread of communist symbols
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Kebayoran Baru Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ary Purwanto (center) shows journalists the T-shirt of German trash metal band Kreator at the Kebayoran Baru Police precinct in May. Police released two sellers of the T-shirts, which feature a hammer and sickle picture resembling that of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). (thejakartapost.com/Callistasia Anggun Wijaya)
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span style="line-height: 1.6em;">Activists have condemned President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's instructions for security officials to take legal action against anyone suspected of distributing communist symbols amid.
The order comes amid crackdowns by the police and military over the alleged rise of support for communism in the country.
The instruction was counterproductive given the government's commitment to shed light on the 1965 anticommunist massacres, advocacy director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) Bahrain said on Thursday.
"As the president, Jokowi must do something. Now, while he wants to achieve reconciliation [for the victims of 1965], he makes weird statements like that," Bahrain told journalists at a press conference.
Haris Azhar from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) also questioned the order. It could be [misused as] a tool for anyone to conduct violence in the name of anticommunism, he told newsportal kompas.com on Thursday.
National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti revealed on Tuesday that Jokowi had ordered the police and Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to take legal action against the spread of communist symbols.
Police and TNI personnel have cracked down on recent discussions and film screenings on the 1965 tragedy, which is believed to have claimed at least 500,000 lives, as well as vendors selling communism-related merchandise.
However, Presidential Spokesman Johan Budi SP said Jokowi had also asked authorities to pay attention to human rights and the freedom of expression in the enforcement of the orders. The President had received reports that security personnel had overreacted to the issue, Johan said on Thursday, as reported by kompas.com.
Moreover, activists questioned the increasing involvement of the military in civilian affairs amid attempts to prevent a so-called revival of communism.
"The military doesn't have the right to arrest civilians," Alghiffari Aqsa, the director of LBH Jakarta said.
He was referring to members of the East Jakarta Military District Command, who seized several copies of a book by Hermawan Sulistiyo entitled Palu Arit di Ladang Tebu (Hammer and Sickle in the Sugar Cane Field) from a store in Cawang, East Jakarta, on May 3. The TNI personnel also confiscated T-shirts featuring a hammer and sickle logo.
Furthermore, the Ternate Military District Command in North Maluku arrested four activists of the Alliance of Indigenous People (AMAN) on Tuesday on the back of the possession of books and T-shirts related with leftist movements, Tempo.co reported.
In 2010, the Constitutional Court annulled a 1963 law on monitoring printed materials with content that could endanger the public order. Therefore, the military had no legal basis to conduct the confiscations, Alghiffari said. (vps/rin)
