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Lecturer’s curse of President tests limits of free speech
UI academic derided Jokowi's policy on new capital.
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niversity of Indonesia lecturer Rocky Gerung is facing criminal charges following a controversial remark he made about President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in a case that has sparked debates over the limits of free speech.
In a YouTube video that was originally posted late last month but has since been taken down, Rocky seemingly called President Jokowi a “bajingan tolol” (stupid bastard) when describing his insistence in seeing through his ambitious new capital city project despite its economic challenges.
Rocky’s statement has since caused a public uproar, with many government officials and Jokowi supporters having lambasted the academic for being out of line with his criticism. Some of Jokowi’s supporters, along with party members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which Jokowi is a member, have also staged protests against Rocky.
“[Rocky's statement] is a clear attack against the President and it cannot be tolerated. I hope law enforcers can take measures [against Rocky] in accordance with applicable laws. Things like this cannot slide,” Presidential chief of staff Moeldoko said last week.
The philosophy lecturer has been reported close to two dozen times to the police as of Tuesday, although none of these reports came from Jokowi himself.
Under the controversial Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law, the provision on defamation requires Rocky to be reported to the authorities by Jokowi himself.
“This is delik aduan [antragsdelikt, or an offense that cannot be prosecuted without a complaint by the victim]. The State Palace has no plan to file a report [to the police yet],” Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. “But it is possible that this case can develop into [an offense that is not a delik aduan]. The public has seen this as a serious problem on social media.”
When asked by reporters last week about Rocky's criticism, Jokowi provided a curt response. “Those are trivial matters, I will just focus on my work.”
As anger simmers among pro-Jokowi supporters, Rocky made a public apology last week, saying that his criticisms were not specifically directed at Jokowi, but was instead directed at his administration in general.
“I would like to apologize for the situation we find ourselves in today,” Rocky said in a televised press conference. “The words I chose were indeed sharp, but they were not directed at President Jokowi personally. Instead, [they were directed] at public institutions, including the cabinet.”
Following the apology, PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said on Saturday that his party was already looking to bury the hatchet with Rocky. But he also urged Rocky to focus more on the “positives” of the Jokowi administration.
The National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) said on Tuesday that authorities had so far received a total of 21 police reports made against Rocky.
According to Bareskrim’s General Crimes director, Brig. Gen. Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro, two of these reports had been received by Bareskrim, an additional four reports were received by the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, while the remaining reports had been filed to police precincts throughout the country.
“All of these police reports [will be processed by Bareskrim] because the object of the case and the reported party were all the same,” Djuhandhani said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Djuhandhani previously said the police would investigate Rocky for allegedly violating Article 14 of Law No. 1/1946 on misinformation, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and does not require a complaint from Jokowi himself as the ITE Law does.
The case comes as the government prepares the implementing regulations of the new Criminal Code, which comes into effect three years after its promulgation in December 2022. Within the new code, Article 218 stipulates that anyone accused of insulting the President could be prosecuted and face up to 3.5 years in prison.
Experts have called on the police to instead prioritize a restorative justice approach in handling Rocky’s case, saying that softer measures would set a better precedent for the government rather than criminalizing a critic.
“These measures could include [the police] mediating a meeting between Jokowi and Rocky,” forensic psychologist Reza Indragiri Amriel said on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com. “If this happens, it will be beneficial to everybody.”
Meanwhile, rights activist Haris Azhar lamented the rising trend of government critics being taken to court.
“If we criticize [the government], they will say it’s defamation. This cannot continue to happen,” Haris, who himself is currently sitting for trial in a defamation case against senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan, said last week, as quoted by tempo.co. (ahw)
