A 24-year-old sate vendor and resident of Ciracas, East Jakarta, who is being referred to in the media as MA, was arrested by police for allegedly insulting President Joko Widodo on Facebook. He was arrested last Thursday and has has been in detention since.
MA’s attorney, Irfan Fahmi, said MA followed the tense political situation during the presidential election last July. At that time, he was loading some images he got from the Internet about the appearance and controversial things said about Jokowi’s race and religion.
“He just went along with it, caught up in the political situation at the time,” Irfan said when contacted by Tempo yesterday.
According to Irfan, MA did it because he did not understand that his actions could lead to his detention. He said MA spent most of his time selling sate and only accessed Facebook occasionally from Internet cafes.
“The contents that he posted to Facebook has also been removed because he was afraid,” Irfan added.
MA was arrested last Thursday morning by four plain-clothed police officers who came to his house. After asking him a few things, they hauled MA off to police headquarters. “After 24 hours of interrogation, MA was declared a suspect on Friday afternoon the next day,” Irfan said.
MA’s sharing of the supposedly defamatory article is punishable under the 2008 Law on Information and Electronic Transactions, which says anyone convicted of using electronic media “to intimidate or defame others,” or even insulting the “dignity of someone,” is a criminal offense punishable with up to 10 years in prison.
MA’s mother has been extremely upset since her son was detained and said she wanted her family to meet with Jokowi to ask his forgiveness.
“If allowed to meet him, the family would fall at Jokowi’s feet Jokowi so that MA could go home,” Irfan said.
Netizens reacted with outrage to MA’s detention on Twitter:
“Even worse than the New Order. The iron hand starts to appear. They’re really tough with small people. WTH!”
“But seriously? Who reported the sate guy? Jokowi volunteers? Totally ridiculous if that’s the case.”
“First action by Jokowi. Jail a sate seller because he bullied Jokowi. Awesome. Really pro people Pak Jokowi.”
First somebody is facing trial for insulting a city on Path, now somebody is facing years in prison for insulting the president on Facebook. We hope Jokowi puts a stop to this ridiculous case immediately, or it will set a very bad signal about his administration’s belief in the freedom of speech.
Related
Too Hot for Indonesia? What happens after a celebrity sex scandal
Reader Interactions