Police personnel escort persecution case suspects Abdul Mujib (second from right) and Matusin (third from right) at Jakarta Police Headquarters on Friday (2/6). The Jakarta Police named Abdul and Matusin as suspects in the attack on Putra Mario Alvian Alexander, who allegedly insulted Muslim scholars and the FPI.
The last weekend edition of this newspaper wrote on "Stop Taking the Law into One\'s Own Hands". The story followed up on a call from the President about widespread persecution.
To quote data from the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), the period from January 27 to the end of May 2017 had seen 59 cases of intimidation against individuals, accusing them of insulting Islam and its clerics. In reality, persecution can be translated as intimidation against anyone who writes in the social media and is deemed to have insulted certain public figures. The victims of persecution have been forced to issue an official apology. Verbal abuse sometimes occurs.
The term“persecution” is relatively new in the Indonesian legal vocabulary. According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (Great Indonesian Dictionary), persecution is defined as “the arbitrary hunting of a person or a number of citizens who are harmed, harassed or crushed”. To persecute means beatings and ill treatment. Meanwhile, in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – which Indonesia has not ratified – persecution is classified as an act against humanity. Persecution means ill treatment against groups based on their politics, tribal affiliation, nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion and gender, which is not permitted under international law.
The Rome Statute clearly cannot be applied against the activities considered to be persecution at this time. A number of articles of the Criminal Code can be applied against persecution. However, taking the law into one\'s own hands cannot be justified. A community has no right to force someone to do or not do something according to their wishes. All conflicts in society should be resolved through legal channels: Make the law, the commander of resolving conflicts. For that, impartial law enforcement is needed so that they may uphold the law against anyone suspected of violating the law.
Looking at the victims of vigilantism, these cases appear to originate from opinions shared in the wilderness of social media, which is often filled with hate speech; social media provides a space for it. However, at the same time, it should be realized that social media is made up of a variety of interests and groups from society.
As with communicating in the real world, communicating on social media has rules. Articles in the Criminal Code can be applied; articles of the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions can also be used. The ethics of communicating through social media has to be disseminated continuously so that getting along in social media should not necessarily give rise to vigilantism, but can build social solidarity among the nation\'s children.
Back to the main issue, taking the law into anyone\'s own hands cannot be justified! The state must take action. In the present situation, intelligence and wisdom in communicating are expected.
