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RA’s lawyers urge reopening of harassment case
Not long after the public praised the government for granting Baiq Nuril Maknun amnesty after years of fighting for her rights as a victim of alleged sexual harassment, identified only as RA, another woman, is enduring a similar experience
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span>Not long after the public praised the government for granting Baiq Nuril Maknun amnesty after years of fighting for her rights as a victim of alleged sexual harassment, identified only as RA, another woman, is enduring a similar experience.
RA is battling a sexual harassment case against her former boss at the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) as she battles the depression she has suffered ever since the case became public.
RA alleges that she was sexually harassed on at least four separate occasions from April 2016 to November 2018, when she was the expert assistant to Syafri Adnan Baharuddin, the secretary of the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan supervisory board. Syafri has since resigned from his position in response to the allegations against him.
RA and her lawyers sought the assistance of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) after she was informed that the National Police had recently decided to drop its investigation into her case, claiming a lack of sufficient evidence.
Komnas Perempuan and RA’s legal counsel, lawyers Popy Meilani Erwanti and Sri Suparyati from the Lokataru Legal and Human Rights Foundation, met on Monday and issued a call for the police to resume its investigation and all attendant legal proceedings. They also urged the police to drop Syafri’s defamation case against RA.
Syafri reported RA for alleged defamation to the National Police’s criminal investigation unit (Bareskrim) under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law — the same law that Baiq Nuril’s alleged sexual harasser used to bring a defamation case against her.
“She is [physically] well, but she is still recovering [from depression and trauma],” Sri told The Jakarta Post after the meeting on Monday.
Komnas Perempuan commissioner Mariana Amiruddin said the group planned to send a letter to the police and attempt to start discussions on their rationale for terminating the investigation into RA’s sexual harassment case.
Mariana added that the commission was also providing assistance to RA in psychological and emotional recovery.
“It isn’t enough that the government granted Baiq Nuril amnesty. There must be something to ensure that no other women will experience what Baiq Nuril went through. Otherwise, such cases will keep on [reoccurring],” she said.
Maidina Rahmawati from the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) stressed that victim blaming in sexual harassment cases had to stop.
“We don’t have comprehensive data on [victim blaming], but it is indeed common practice,” Maidina told the Post, and that putting a stop to victim blaming would require the efforts of multiple parties.
She added that there was a need to revolutionize the way law enforcement officers handled sexual harassment cases, especially those in which the victims were women.
Maidina said that law enforcement officers should take a victim-centered approach throughout the legal process in such cases, from evaluating the victim’s psychological and emotional state to obtaining the necessary documentation from doctors and clinical psychologists, and to providing the necessary assistance, as well as coordinating with the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) on material and immaterial damage.
“If law enforcement officers are unable to consider the victim’s perspective, then handling [sexual harassment cases] will always be difficult,” she said.
RA accused Syafri of sexually harassing her multiple times during and after working hours while she was his assistant. She claimed that the harassment also took place on out-of-town assignments that she alleges Syafri had orchestrated.
In December 2018, RA filed a complaint on the harassment with the chairman of the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan supervisory board, who then forwarded it to the National Social Security Council (DJSN) for follow-up as per regulations. The DJSN followed procedure and formed an ad hoc team to investigate RA’s complaint.
However, the team stopped its investigation and dispersed following the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 12/2019, which stipulated an honorable dismissal for Syafri. By then, Syafri had announced his resignation from the agency at a press conference on Dec. 30, 2018.
RA said in early January that she had faced constant intimidation at her workplace since her case became public.
She said she endured trauma that was exacerbated by her colleagues’s dismissive attitude and suffered depression, which nearly led her to attempt suicide.
“As if being sexually harassed was not enough, I also had to deal with false accusations and insults thrown at me by my colleagues,” she said at the time. “Some of those who bullied me on social media are women. Why are they denigrating me instead of condemning the harasser?”
