By Johannes Nugroho-May 29
First published in Today Online and accessible at: https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/worrisome-emergence-social-media-new-political-pressure-group-indonesia
Controversy over public issues on social media, and the ensuing battles between influential social media accounts to sway public opinion, are fast becoming a regular feature of Indonesia’s sociopolitical life.
More interestingly, there are signs that such arguments on social media are monitored by government agencies and can affect the way they behave on a given issue.
The latest saga revolves around a viral video clip in which a bare-chested Chinese Indonesian teenager boastfully calls President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo his “errand boy” whom he plans to “put in the stocks” and shoot dead. He then challenges the police to track him, which they certainly did.
Nabbed in his West Jakarta home, the 16-year-old by the name of Royson Jordany Tjahja was duly interrogated but soon released back to his parents.
I n a statement to the press, Jakarta Metropolitan Police Public Relations Head Argo Yuwono said: “This was an act of juvenile delinquency. He made the clip when he was with friends as part of a dare. It was just a joke.”
In a bid to appear contrite, the offending teenager then appeared in another clip with his father and they both apologized to the president and the nation.
Tjahja was definitely not the first Indonesian to have made derogatory and offensive social media posts against the president.
Nine people of different ages have so far been convicted and jailed for doing so. But his was a peculiar case since anti-Jokowi social media posts tend to come from people who support his political rivals. Tjahja was unequivocally not one.
Given the mild reaction by the police to Tjahja’s case, many Indonesians began protesting on social media.
As the story developed, influential social media accounts began to weigh in on the debate.
Some in the pro-government camp want to make sure that the boy is dealt with in accordance to the law to deflect any blame on the Jokowi administration.
The Twitter account el diablo @digembok, known for its pro-government stance, began exposing the boy’s family background. It claimed that his mother is a successful businesswoman while his father is a medical doctor, and that his sister had participated in the 2015 Miss Indonesia Pageant.
Tjahja’s profile as a snooty, Ferrari-driving spoiled brat who had allegedly been kicked out of different schools for disciplinary offenses did not go down well with netizens.
They soon started accusing the police of wanting to let the boy go scot-free because his parents were rich. Those who defended him argued that he was underage and therefore should not be criminalized.
Another more popular social media account, Mak Lambe Turah (MLT), literally Auntie Kaypoh, with more than 700,000 followers on Facebook echoed el diablo’s posts, urging that the young offender be treated equally before the law as other similar past offenders.
MLT went as far as conducting a poll on the matter, with more than 90 per cent respondents supporting a move to charge the boy.
The results were copied to the social media accounts belonging to the Indonesian Police.
Not to be outdone, anti-government accounts also waded into the debate, and things quickly took an ugly turn when some started to use racist language, calling Tjahja “the Chinese boy” among other things.
Critics of President Jokowi conveniently cited the case as proof that the current government accords Chinese Indonesians special treatment.
“The boy would be in jail now if he was a Muslim pribumi,” commented a Facebook user.
The comment recalls an earlier case last year in which a 17-year-old student in Medan who happened to be “Muslim and pribumi” was arrested for creating and spreading memes deemed insulting to the president and the police chief on his Facebook account. The youth was eventually sentenced to 18 months in jail.
As if reacting to the widespread anger on social media, the police then announced that Tjahja would be charged.
“The boy is underage but what he did was criminal. He could still be charged under the juvenile justice system,” said a National Police spokesman.
Toeing the line, his Jakarta Metropolitan counterpart did a U-turn and also told the press: “We will charge him with the 2006 Information Technology Law, with a maximum sentence of six years.”
Consequently, Tjahja was taken into custody by the police and placed in a youth detention center pending his trial.
Social media pressure has affected a positive result in this case.
Letting Tjahja escape the consequences of his action would have injured justice and exacerbated negative sentiments against the country’s Chinese minority.
But the fact that public pressure was needed to safeguard the application of the law in what is essentially a trivial case suggests both deficiency in the rule of law in the country and the lack of public faith in law enforcement agencies.
The manifestation of social media as a new political pressure group is both interesting and worrisome.
Just before Tjahja’s video went viral, eight houses belonging to Ahmadi Muslims in East Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, were vandalized by locals because the Ahmadis had refused to “repent” and convert to the mainstream Sunni Islam.
The police did not do much to prevent the attack and no perpetrator was arrested.
Since no influential social media account took up the cause on behalf of the Ahmadi victims, what was blatantly a hate crime against the minority Ahmadis became just another fleeting item on everyone’s social media newsfeed.
For pro-government accounts, talking about the incident would only expose the government’s failure to protect minority groups. For anti-government accounts, the attack was probably justified because the Ahmadis are seen as heretics by mainstream Muslims.
It would seem, 20 years on after reformasi, the rule of law remains elusive for Indonesia.
The new role of social media as a pressure group, while yielding positive results in some cases, only confirms the arbitrary nature of law enforcement in the country.
Johannes Nugroho is a writer from Surabaya.
