Can you be progressive and reactionary at the same time? Easily, many people are. 

Take singer-songwriter Iwan Fals. Considered Indonesia’s Bob Dylan, he’s known for his bold lyrics, critical of social wrongs. His songs bear titles such as “Rekening Gendut” (Fat Bank Accounts) criticizing corruption, “Bangsat” (Son of a Bitch) about politicians who exploit the people, or “Rubah” (Fox) about Indonesia’s judicial system which victimizes the people rather than protect them.

So I was surprised when I found out he also does love songs. One of them is “Mata Indah Bola Pingpong”(Beautiful Eyes Ping Pong Ball), released in 1987, which a friend half-jokingly said was an anthem for sexual harassment. Check out these lyrics: Don’t be angry if I tease you/Because you deserve to be teased / It’s your own fault that you are sweet / You have a very sweet face / So it’s natural that I tease you. Blaming the woman? So what’s new? 

I wonder if in 2012, the headmaster of SMA 7 high school in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) sang this song to Baiq Nuril, 37, a contract teacher at the school? Was that the reason she recorded him? If only. 

No, she did so because the headmaster, whose name was Muslim (sic!), would call her on the phone to tell her about his sexual exploits with other women. Feeling afraid and harassed, to protect herself, she recorded one of the calls in which he verbally abused her. 

Someone got hold of the recording, and it went viral. As a result, Muslim was sacked. He then reported Nuril to the provincial police. She was put on trial, and was found not guilty by the Mataram District Court. 

Muslim appealed to the Supreme Court, which found Nuril guilty of violating Article 27 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law. She was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and told to pay a fine of Rp 500 million, equivalent to almost US$35,000, as The Jakarta Post reported.

There are many disturbing issues reflected in Nuril’s case. The first is the draconian ITE Law, which has claimed many (innocent) victims. It reminds me of the “Peterporn” sex tape scandal in 2010, involving rock star Ariel of the band Peterpan. He was tried, imprisoned and fined over sex tapes of him with a number of women. The tapes were distributed not by him, but by Reza Rizaldi, one of Ariel’s music editors who somehow got hold of them. But it was Ariel who was punished not only under the law on pornography, but also the ITE Law. Ironic, because the latter prohibits dissemination of “immoral material”. Well, Ariel didn’t distribute them, but he was fined and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Reza got a lighter sentence, only two years.

In Nuril’s case, there is not even any mention of who disseminated the recording, and yet it was Nuril, the victim, who the Supreme Court sought to punish using the ITE Law.

The public outcry over what was correctly perceived as an unjust verdict for Nuril was huge. She is harassed by her philandering headmaster, and she is the one who gets punished? Hello? 

A petition for her release garnered thousands of signatures in no time. Activists in nine cities protested the jailing of Nuril and even Nahdladul Ulama, the country’s biggest Muslim organization, called on the Supreme Court to release Nuril. So clearly society has a sense of justice; it’s the legal system that fails its mandate, in the case of Nuril and many others. 

For now, this outpouring of public support has had the effect of delaying her imprisonment. 

Nuril has sought amnesty from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who urged Nuril to appeal the verdict, but said he 

could not interfere with the legal process. Oh yes, you can Pak Jokowi. It says so in Article 14 of the Constitution, even though it has to be with due regard to the consideration of the House of Representatives.

It also raises the question of the Supreme Court. What is wrong with them? Recently, a Supreme Court justice and spokesman said “the court cannot prohibit people from getting married, including minors” (see “Children have right to marry: Supreme Court”, the Post, Nov. 23).

What? When study upon study have shown how harmful child marriage can be? Globally, Indonesia ranks among the top 10 for marriages under 18. 

According to the United Nations, which commemorates International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women annually on Nov. 25, child marriage is a form of violence against women. 

An anthology in Indonesian, Marrying Young in Indonesia: Voices, Law and Practices published this year by Pustaka Obor and launched last Nov. 26, mentioned in several chapters how child marriage leads to various forms of violence against the girl brides. It has much to do with the prevailing religious conservatism, and the existence of a loophole, i.e. marriage dispensation, issued by local level religious courts, which can override the Marriage Law and the Child Protection Law. Clearly Indonesia has a legal crisis here, when a lower court can overrule a higher court or law. This is only one of a multitude of problems with Indonesia‘s legal system, corruption being another biggie.

On the issue of sexual harassment, recently there was also the case of “Agni”, a student at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), who was sexually assaulted by a fellow student. Instead of punishing the perpetrator, Agni was blamed, which led to thousands expressing outrage. Do you see a pattern here? 

Facing the 2019 presidential elections, Veni Siregar of the Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH-APIK) remarked that neither presidential candidate pair — not Jokowi and Ma’ruf Amin nor Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno — have shown a clear gender perspective. 

They certainly have not outlined any program for sexual violence, which has become an increasingly urgent problem in Indonesia. What protection can women and girls expect then from our leaders and the legal system in a sexist, at times misogynistic society?

Perhaps Iwan Fals should remove “Mata Indah Bola Pingpong” from his repertoire, especially since he expressed outrage at the recent cases of sexual violence against both women and children. However his “Rekening Gendut”, “Bangsat” and “Rubah”, should be played over and over across state institutions, especially “Rubah” at the Supreme Court. Hopefully it will remind them not to use the law to victimize people, but to protect them.

***

The writer is the author of Sex, Power and Nation.