The case surrounding Baiq Nuril has caught the public\'s attention in recent days, after the Supreme Court rejected the request for a judicial review she filed.
Baiq Nuril, a former contract teacher at SMA Negeri 7 state senior high school in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, was involved in a case on the electronic distribution of pornographic content. She was charged under Law No. 19 of 2016 on Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE).
This case is widely discussed in the community because some people consider Nuril to be a victim of sexual abuse by the school headmaster, who was also her boss. Nuril was sentenced when in 2012 she made a recording of the abuse, which took place over the phone. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo followed Nuril\'s case and said he would give amnesty if Nuril asked.
The mother of three sent the recording to a friend of hers. This is why Nuril is considered to have spread pornographic content.
We respect the decision taken by the judges of the Supreme Court (MA), the highest judicial institution, and the decision was certainly made after thorough consideration.
However, we are also obliged to provide a place for citizens who want to seek justice. We appreciate Nuril\'s wish to ask the President for amnesty in an effort to seek more substantive justice.
There are several things that deserve attention in the Baiq Nuril case. First of all, the case deals with a victim of sexual abuse. The Mataram District Court acquitted her of the allegation that she spread pornographic content. However, the Supreme Court granted an appeal filed by the prosecutor and sentenced Nuril to six months in prison and ordered her to pay a fine of Rp 500 million. Nuril filed a judicial review, but it was also rejected by the Supreme Court.
Several members of the community see that the allegation of sexual harassment, which caused Nuril to record her conversation with the school headmaster, has never been examined. Nuril\'s friend who distributed the recording has also not been legally processed.
In such a situation, the public see that the punishment for Nuril is gender bias and also class bias. Besides being a woman, Nuril is a contract teacher. Here there is an imbalance of layered power relations in our society that is still patriarchal. The bias is also reflected in a part of our legal rules.
Another important aspect of the Baiq Nuril case is about the role of the law, which is not just technology, but a tool to describe the humanitarian basis that functions to give blessings to the world and humans, as once stated by the late Prof. Dr. Satjipto Rahardjo on legal progressivism. People expect a lot from law enforcers to see the law not only in a legal-formal way.
We also need to review the ITE Law, which has caused more than 350 people to get involved in legal cases. Some feel that the sentences had not fulfilled a sense of justice because the underlying problems were not touched on, as in the Baiq Nuril case.