Countering Hate Speech

Posted by AsiaViews | Dec 4, 2017 | 0 |

The Jakarta Post

Nov 28, 2017

Different countries respond differently to hoaxes, fake news and hate speech. In Germany, the government enforces a law that imposes heavy fines on social media companies who fail to delete hate speech or fake news — legislation that was effective in staving off possible meddling in the country’s general election last September.

The United States stands in the opposite extreme to Germany. In the US, freedom of speech is a sacrosanct principle even though it allows the vilest expressions toward minority groups and ethnicities. So, even when neo-Nazis spewed hatred and bigotry on the streets of Virginia in August this year, some were arrested only for disrupting public order and other minor offenses.

Indonesia sits somewhere in the middle. We have the laws and regulations, but their enforcement has not been successful. The country’s criminal code (KUHP) has at least five articles that make it a crime for individuals to express animosity toward others.

The types of hateful expressions defined by these five articles range from slander and insults, to filing a false written or oral report to authorities that could harm the reputation of others. Each carries a maximum prison term of four years.

The Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law has also made it difficult for individuals to express their hate and prejudices online and on social media. But the problem with the ITE Law is that it was implemented to only target critics of the government, including President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

For example, police in Central Java arrested last year Bambang Tri Mulyono for writing the book Jokowi Undercover, which presented dubious facts about Jokowi and his family.

The law has also been used to crack down on offenses that have little to do with hate speech. In September, police used the ITE Law to arrest an individual responsible for creating the website nikahsirri.com, alleging that the controversial matchmaking site had offered prostitution services. Even when law enforcement agencies arrested those guilty of legitimately making hateful statements, it is sometimes difficult to persuade the court to deliver a punishment.

Early in September, police arrested for the second time Alfian Tanjung, a firebrand cleric affiliated with the Jakarta-based Muhammadiyah University of Prof. Dr. Hamka (UHAMKA), after a court acquitted him of separate hate speech charges due to legal technicalities.

The police themselves have been reluctant to pursue hate speech cases, especially if the suspects have a large following and are politically wired, like cleric Rizieq Shihab. It was against this context that the cleric of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), recommended that hate speech be considered a disgraceful act that must be deemed haram under all circumstances.

According to the cleric, law enforcement against hate speech would provide a deterrent. With this statement, and as Indonesia braces for two successive election years in 2018 and 2019, the fight against hate speech just got a big political boost. It’s time to get serious.

(http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/11/28/editorial-countering-hate-speech.html)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Countering Hate Speech