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View all search resultsMahfud, misogyny and nonrestorative injustice
The stats show that Indonesia is experiencing an epidemic of gender-based crimes.
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hat do you do with repeat offenders in your life? You know, those who continuously try to gaslight you, bully you and try to find a way to bring you down? Most likely you would distance yourself, or even totally severe relations, right?
In the world of crime, repeat offenders are arrested, put on trial and punished according to the law so that they stop committing their harmful, criminal acts.
However, in Indonesian politics, some repeat offenders are given positions in the higher echelons of government office. One of them is Mahfud MD, coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister and former chief justice of the Constitutional Court (2008-2013).
His latest instance of repeat offense is related to misogyny - which should be defined as a hate crime. His first public foot-in-mouth moment was in May 2020 when he said “Corona is like your wife. Initially, you try to control it, then you realize that you can't, so you learn to live with it” (see “Coronavirus is your wife vs half the sky”, The Jakarta Post, June 10, 2020).
At the time he got a huge backlash, but due to his misogynistic mindset, he made a repeat offense, even way more egregious than his first. He gave examples of restorative justice, defined loosely as “a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large” (Oxford Dictionary).
In a National Police leadership meeting on Feb. 16, Mahfud explained it thus: “Restorative justice is law ... it comes from the Indonesian legal culture where law is not a tool to win, but to build harmony and togetherness. Therefore, trivial matters do not have to be brought to court”.
By way of trivial matters he used these examples: stealing a chicken, cucumbers, melons, rubber sandals, and … rape. Before we explode with rage at him for lumping these crimes together (I did), hold your breath and listen to his explanation: “Siti is raped, if you want a strict law, the rapist Amin is arrested and is tried in court - it's over. But restorative justice says this: if we arrest Amin the rapist, and then announce that he raped Siti, Siti's family is destroyed”. Oooh, it’s the family that’s destroyed is it?
