This is freedom of speech à la carte, with the authorities picking and choosing which expressions are allowed and which should be banned, arbitrarily depending on their political interests.

A mural depicting the President with his eyes covered by a caption that says “404 not found” in Tangerang was painted over by police. Promising to go after the perpetrators, police initially said the President was a state symbol that enjoyed legal protection against insults. Days later, after a personal intervention by the President to allow criticism against him, the police stopped the chase.

But the police have also been painting over other murals and graffiti critical of the government, not directly targeting the President, but with expressions such as “God, I am hungry” and “Jailed because of hunger”. Some of these emerged recently, clearly to test the police’s level of understanding of free speech. We know the answer. 

Contrast this with billboards displaying huge and imposing photos of Puan Maharani, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Airlangga Hartarto, the coordinating economic minister, appearing in streets of major cities and towns. There is nothing wrong with this in the realm of freedom of expression, but doing this at a time when the nation is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic is downright insensitive.

Understandably, both top political figures, one represents the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the other Golkar, have fared poorly in opinion polls of the most popular candidates for 2024. But their action is a blatant disregard for the feeling of the people when thousands are dying of COVID-19 or struggling to stay alive, and when our movement is severely restricted.

Airlangga should focus on his added task as head of the national COVID-19 and economic recovery committee, while Puan should mobilize the House to support the national campaign to contain the pandemic. They may be exercising their right to freedom of expression, but their behavior will be remembered come 2024. They can almost kiss the presidency goodbye.

The police’s excessive action in censoring murals but turning a blind eye to the political billboards reminds us of the Soeharto days when their objective was not so much to enforce the law as to please the powers that be. When they do this, often freedom of speech goes out of the window.

Political murals are more subtle than graffiti, and some admittedly may be a public nuisance, but there should be more tolerance of these expressions, as well as other forms of political expression. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken such a huge toll on people’s lives and livelihood that they need outlets to vent their anger and frustration, and yes, sometimes at the government.

They have been bullied out of social media by paid influencers, and now they cannot even express themselves offline on the streets. Where else can they go now?

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua