Arresting someone for posting a meme about the country’s leaders on social media and then charging them with defamation is excessive. The net is filled with memes critical of the government and national leaders, many of which are expressed creatively through satire.   

Cracking down on one particulate post, as police did recently, is sending the wrong message about the quality of our democracy and freedom of expression. This is not just about that one post. Many others may now be deterred and intimidated by the police action when they want to post creative political expressions.

Police have released the Bandung college student for posting the meme, but they have not dropped the charges under the articles on insults and defamation in the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE).

There is nothing offensive about the meme, which is still available on social media platforms. The student, using artificial intelligence, posted a picture of President Prabowo Subianto kissing his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on the mouth.

This being satire, it is open to many interpretations, but no one who knows Indonesian politics, including the police, and who knows these two high profile public figures well, would conclude that they are in an amorous relationship.

A more valid interpretation is that there is ongoing political collusion between these two leaders. Indeed there is a good reason to suspect this, given that Jokowi appears to remain influential in the current government. Wasn’t it Prabowo who just last month hailed “Long live Jokowi” in a speech at his Gerindra Party function?

The meme is simply expressing sentiments felt by many people in this country about the current political situation and the national leadership. It is for the two men, or their supporters, to respond to the meme, by coming up with equally creative expressions. Arresting the college student is not the way to go.

If police felt particularly strong about the post, they could have just ordered the platforms to take it down, which they have the power to do under the country’s regulation on social media. Instead, they decided to arrest the student, attracting attention that only increased the post’s virality, while also drawing criticism and ridicule.

It is even more ridiculous that police made the arrest only a few days after the Constitutional Court (MK) handed down the ruling that the defamation article in the ITE Law does not protect state institutions. Any police action must therefore be based on a complaint filed by the individuals who feel they have been defamed.

Both the President and former president are part of the country’s political institutions which should not be shielded from criticism, including satire. Prabowo’s office has said he has no problem with the meme, and it isn’t clear whether Jokowi had filed a complaint, although he did comment that the meme was “overboard”. But if he did not file an official complaint, why are the police taking action? Did they not read the MK ruling?

Police said they released the student in the name of “humanitarianism” and “education” and following requests from the parents and college professors. The student also apologized to both leaders and agreed to undergo pembinaan, a sort of corrective counselling by the parents and the college, according to the student’s lawyer.

This case does not bode well for democracy. If anyone should apologize, it should be the police for making the wrongful arrest, and if anyone needs pembinaan it is also the police for failing to see satire and for discouraging legitimate political speech.