TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Thousands condemn Undip lecturer
More than 125,000 online petitioners have expressed their disappointment with official recommendations to allow an alleged sex offender at Diponegoro University (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, to maintain his position at the school as a lecturer
Change Size
M
span>More than 125,000 online petitioners have expressed their disappointment with official recommendations to allow an alleged sex offender at Diponegoro University (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, to maintain his position at the school as a lecturer.
An online petition on change.org describes the recommendations issued by an ad hoc team as “too lenient”. It is calling on the university to establish an independent team in hope that it could administer a “fair” punishment.
An ad hoc team established by Undip’s School of Humanities recently gave two recommendations to Kodir (not his real name), a lecturer who had admitted to molesting female students.
The team recommended that he limit his interaction with female students and advised him to undergo a psychological examination.
“The dean must take firm action. This lecturer must be terminated because he has sexually harassed his students multiple times,” a member of Undip’s student executive body, Pramudya Lazuardi, told The Jakarta Post.
He added that students and faculty members had gotten together to establish the Voice of Humanities Students Alliance to monitor the sexual harassment case. And the alliance wants Kodir to be legally punished.
Meanwhile, Gender and Human Rights Center head Ummanabiegh Ismail Jala said Kodir’s presence on campus would spread fear among female students, so firing him is a must.
“He has been doing it for years. There have been many victims. The sanctions [recommended by the ad hoc team] are still too lenient,” Jala said, adding that the team must not only punish Kodir but also create a mechanism for the handling sexual harassment cases in Undip.
The thirteen-member ad hoc team was led by lecturer Iriyanto Widisuseno. They investigated Kodir’s case for two months before offering their recommendations.
Iriyanto said they had listened to the testimonies of four female victims who had Kodir as their thesis advisor.
“He admitted that the allegations were true,” Iriyanto told the Post recently.
However, he said the team had decided to not use the term “sexual harassment” in investigating the case and instead called Kodir’s actions an “alleged ethics code violation”.
The sexual abuse at Undip came to light after the four victims described their experience to #NamaBaikKampus, a collaboration project between The Jakarta Post, Tirto.id and VICE Indonesia aimed at raising awareness about sexual violence on university campuses across Indonesia.
The victims said that, among other inappropriate actions, Kodir had caressed and touched their breasts, as well as attempted to kiss them.
This is not the first time Kodir has been reported for alleged sexual harassment. In 2016, two students filed a report to the school with similar allegations. The dean at the time “reprimanded” Kodir but allowed him to continue teaching.
The ad hoc team said Kodir had violated Academic Senate Regulation No. 2/2017 on the ethics code for Undip lecturers, particularly Article 13, paragraph 6, on lecturer-student relationships, which stipulates that lecturers must build a good relationship with students based on the norms of decency and propriety.
Because the case has impacted the entire university, the team decided that it was not enough that the recommendations were approved by the dean, but they must also be approved by the university.
“The recommendations have been sent by the [School of Humanities] dean to the university,” Iriyanto said.
Undip spokesperson Nuswantoro confirmed, saying the recommendations have been received by Undip rector Yos Johan Utama.
“Usually, the rector would form a special team to review the recommendations. But until today, we haven’t received information on whether he had formed the team,” he said last week.
According to Gadjah Mada University (UGM) gender expert Muhadjir Darwin, heavy punishment for the perpetrator is one way to prevent sexual harassment at schools — but it is not the only way. He emphasized that raising awareness about consent and building a consent culture were also needed.
Muhadjir said no university in Indonesia had been working on fostering a consent culture. The absence of consent culture could lead to rape culture, he added.
“Rape culture allows physical and psychological terrorism toward women,” he said.
