The Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), founded in 2008, was designed in part to help protect and accompany rape victims. But it failed the test in providing protection for the victims of alleged rape committed by 42-year-old Moch Subchi Azal Tsani, the son of the principle of the Shiddiqiyyah pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Jombang, East Java.

Mas Bechi, as he is popularly known in his father’s school, is now on trial for rape, but rather than facing three or more victims in court, only a single victim remains. The East Java Prosecutors’ Office said the two others had withdrawn their reports. Police earlier said they had received reports from at least five victims.

The road to the trial was a long struggle. Police have been building their case since 2019, when they received the first report of alleged rape. A few others have since come forward with similar claims, one dating back to 2017 and another to 2012. Mas Bechi refused to answer all police summons.

This month he finally turned himself in, but only after a days-long of standoff between hundreds of police officers and hundreds of his supporters outside the boarding school. Police have since arrested dozens of these supporters for obstructing justice.

Mas Bechi’s father, Mukhtar Mu'thi, the school’s founder and principal, had refused to hand over his son, insisting the matter would be resolved through a “familial way” with the victims. He relented after massive public outrage and after the Religious Affairs Ministry revoked the school’s license (although later the Presidential Office quickly reinstated it).

In other countries, with the #MeToo movement, more and more people have come forward with their traumatizing experience of rape. In the Shiddiqiyyah pesantren rape scandal, we are seeing the reverse, as victims one by one withdrew their complaints. One can only speculate that the bullying by mas Bechi’s supporters against the police likely had an impact on the victims.

The LPSK has provided assistance to the alleged victims, as it has done with many others in the past. But when these victims decided to withdraw their complaints, we cannot help but have the impression that the LPSK's protection guarantees were inadequate.

Last year, the LPSK received almost 2,200 applications for protection programs, many from sexual abuse victims and witnesses. In all likelihood, this number is just the tip of the iceberg, as many more victims of rape are not willing to speak up in the absence of stronger legal protection.

The LPSK should be more pro-active in reaching out to rape victims, rather than wait for them to make the first contact. What is the point of having a progressive law on eliminating sexual violence, enacted this year after years of struggle, if few victims are willing to come forward?

The LPSK should show to rape victims that the state is there for them as they go through their ordeal and try to recover from their trauma. It could actually go one step further and take the lead in the #MeToo movement in Indonesia.