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Lecturer’s curse of President tests limits of free speech
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo speaks about the planned new capital Nusantara, at Ecosperity Week in Singapore on June 7, 2023. (Reuters/Edgar Su)
U
niversity of Indonesia lecturer Rocky Gerung is facing criminal charges following a controversial remark he made about President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in a case that has sparked debates over the limits of free speech.
In a YouTube video that was originally posted late last month but has since been taken down, Rocky seemingly called President Jokowi a “bajingan tolol” (stupid bastard) when describing his insistence in seeing through his ambitious new capital city project despite its economic challenges.
Rocky’s statement has since caused a public uproar, with many government officials and Jokowi supporters having lambasted the academic for being out of line with his criticism. Some of Jokowi’s supporters, along with party members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which Jokowi is a member, have also staged protests against Rocky.
“[Rocky's statement] is a clear attack against the President and it cannot be tolerated. I hope law enforcers can take measures [against Rocky] in accordance with applicable laws. Things like this cannot slide,” Presidential chief of staff Moeldoko said last week.
The philosophy lecturer has been reported close to two dozen times to the police as of Tuesday, although none of these reports came from Jokowi himself.
Under the controversial Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law, the provision on defamation requires Rocky to be reported to the authorities by Jokowi himself.
“This is delik aduan [antragsdelikt, or an offense that cannot be prosecuted without a complaint by the victim]. The State Palace has no plan to file a report [to the police yet],” Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. “But it is possible that this case can develop into [an offense that is not a delik aduan]. The public has seen this as a serious problem on social media.”
