Diversion of Issues and Threat of Criminalization: A Common Thread
By
USMAN HAMID
·8 minutes read
Kompas/Alif Ichwan
Rina Imelda, the wife of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) senior investigator Novel Baswedan, holds up a photo of Novel and a letter addressed to the President at their house in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, Monday (28/8). Rina intends to send the letter, which describes her husband’s current condition and also requests a meeting with President Joko Widodo to discuss the establishment of a fact-finding team in the investigation of the acid attack against Novel.
Five months after the tragedy of the assault on Novel Baswedan – a senior investigator of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) – it is interesting to look back at the common thread between the handling of this case and past unsolved cases, such as the murder of journalist Udin (1996) and human rights activist Munir (2004).
There is a similar pattern in the three cases, that of diverting public attention from the investigation that should have been carried out. Take, for example, Novel\'s case. Police believe there is a connection between the two unidentified persons who doused liquid acid on his face on April 11 and a business competitor of the online hijab sales run by Novel\'s wife, Rina Emilda. At the time of the attack on Novel, the KPK was investigating major cases, such as the electronic ID card graft case, and there was a strong belief that several cases under question allegedly involved high-ranking police officers.
Meanwhile, in the case of Udin, it was uncovered than an effort had been made to divert the public’s attention by connecting his death with allegations of a love affair between the Bernas journalist and a woman named Tri Sumaryani, one of his neighbors. At the trial, it was discovered that Edi Wuryanto, one of the investors of the Bantul Police Resort, and Sri Kuncoro alias Kuncung— a nephew of Bantul regent Sri Roso Sudarmo who was sent to jail in 1999 following an article Udin wrote on his corrupt activities—had visited Tri several times. Tri was coerced into falsely confessing to a love affair with the journalist to strengthen the police\'s arguments that Udin was murdered by her husband.
In the case of Munir, who was poisoned aboard an aircraft en route to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, an opinion was circulated to divert the public’s attention that Munir was murdered as a result of competition among human rights NGOs fighting over foreign funds.
Such a pattern of diverting public attention could be interpreted as the police\'s efforts to cover their inability to handle cases that receive wide public exposure, such as in the cases of Udin, Munir, and Novel.
Dark veil
The police have thus far not been able to uncover the perpetrator behind the assault against Novel. Instead of finding the perpetrator, the police are instead actively processing five reports that could lead to the criminalization of the reliable KPK senior investigator. One of them is a defamation report submitted by KPK investigation director Brig. Gen. (Pol.) Aris Budiman, which, according to the Jakarta Police Crime Director Sr. Comr. Adi Deriyan, has reached the investigation stage.
Aris reported Novel to the Jakarta Police on Aug. 13 after being offended by an email Novel regarding the KPK regulations on the recruitment of investigators from the police. Actually, the letter Novel sent did not individually represent Novel, but concerned an official rejection by the KPK\'s employee association – which Novel chairs – against the placement of a senior investigator from the National Police in the KPK. Therefore, the police\'s motivations for processing Aris\'s report are highly questionable.
The threat of criminalization against Novel strengthened when 23 days later, on Sept. 5, Sr. Comr. Adi Deriyan reported that Novel’s actions contained a criminal element, namely Article 27, Paragraph 3 of the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions.
The police\'s decision to process these reports filed against Novel shows that the police leadership are not really abiding by the order of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to investigate the attack on Novel thoroughly. "It was a brutal act. I strongly condemn it. Because it was criminal, it is the duty of the National Police Chief to search [for the perpetrator]," President Jokowi said at the State Palace on April 11, 2017, a few hours after the attack took place.
Unfortunately, however, the reluctance of the police to search for the actor behind the attack on Novel shows that the National Police Chief is not able to properly carry out the order of the President, the highest leader in this republic. Meanwhile, the head of the National Police\'s Public Information Bureau, Brig. Gen. (Pol.) Rikwanto, on Sept. 6 even blamed Novel, who, according to him, was not cooperating with the investigation.
This strengthens suspicions that the police are trying to cover the door in the investigation that leads to the involvement of a police general in the attack, as Novel disclosed in June, by immediately raising the status of Aris\'s report from inquiry to investigation. This stage means that the police are only biding their time to determine a suspect in the defamation case.
Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo
Usman Hamid
Fact-finding team
If, in the end, the police name Novel as a suspect in the defamation case, the hopes of the public and Novel to seek justice and the hard work of reformists at the police to improve public trust will disappear. Meanwhile, public pressures for Jokowi to establish a fact-finding team have not received a response from the Palace, either.
On July 31, President Jokowi summoned National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian to the Palace to brief him on the latest progress in Novel\'s case. At that time, Tito brought a police sketch of the alleged attacker. Unfortunately, according to Presidential Spokesman Johan Budi, Jokowi and the National Police Chief did not discuss the public call to form a fact-finding team during their meeting.
President Jokowi should have summoned the National Police Chief again to order the police to focus on investigating Novel\'s case and stop looking into the accusation of defamation against Novel. This is important to maintain the public’s trust in the government.
President Jokowi has to remember that the people stand behind Novel\'s in his case, and a failure to uncover the perpetrator of the attack against Novel will have an impact on the President\'s image as the head of state. Beyond simple trust and image, no matter how busy the government is in handling infrastructure development, the economic agenda should not sideline Novel’s case, which can harm the public spirit of nonviolent culture.
Instead of being explored seriously, the idea for the establishment of a fact-finding team is listened to as if were merely idle chatter. In an interview on Kompas TV on July 31, 2017, Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said the police would wait for the KPK to form a joint team. As to when the fact-finding team will be established has not been made clear, and the structure and organization of the team is uncertain as well. Instead of establishing the fact-finding team, the National Police Chief instead proposed the establishment of a KPK-National Police joint investigation team, as if forgetting about the effectiveness of a fact-finding team in settling a case.
"A TGPF [fact-finding team] is not pro-justitia. It means that its results cannot be used as direct evidence in the investigation or used in court," he said (BBC Indonesia, July 31, 2017). Through this statement, the National Police Chief actually wanted to close his eyes to the significance of a fact-finding team in several past cases. In the case of Munir, for example, a fact-finding team was formed without pro-justitia authority, but the team carried out its corrective function in the footsteps of the police and inherently developed pro-justitia power.
Presidential Decree No. 11/2004 on the Establishment of a Fact-Finding Team stipulates that, in the death of Munir, the team has the authority to "propose the direction of investigation, monitor and evaluate its development". It would be naïve if we do not acknowledge that the checks and balances the team carried out contributed later to accelerated efforts in finding out the truth.
When many activists said that the police were very slow, Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono, the Jakarta Police spokesman, did not think so. For him, questioning 56 witnesses, collecting 50 recordings from CCTV cameras, and visiting 100 shops that sold liquid acid constituted significant progress. In fact, after meeting with the President, the National Police Chief even exhibited the police sketch of the perpetrator behind the attack on Novel. Thus far, the results of the investigation into this case are nil. It was reasonable that Novel asked, "Why do such sketches emerge now, where have they been so far?"
We have learned from the attack on Tama Satrya Langkun in 2010, an anti-corruption activist from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) who took part in reporting suspicious accounts belonging to high-ranking police officers. The police investigation was blocked, the perpetrators were not found, and the case was never closed. Despite the public pressure on security apparatuses, a fact-finding team on Tama\'s case was never formed.
If such a team is not formed immediately and Novel\'s case simply fades away like Tama\'s, we must be prepared to lose human right heroes, anti-corruption heroes and other heroes of virtue in times to come.
