Galungan arrest was not about activist’s anti-reclamation position, released early to maintain public order: police

An arrest of an anti-reclamation activist on the day of the Balinese Galungan holiday turned out to be a grave miscalculation by Bali Police. 

Hundreds of villagers and ‘Tolak Reklamasi’ (anti-Benoa Bay reclamation) protesters crowded police headquarters on Wednesday night in response to the arrest of I Gusti Putu Dharmawijaya aka Gung Omleth. 

Protesters argued that this arrest meant police were criminalizing the Tolak Reklamasi movement. And of course they also weren’t thrilled police would conduct such an arrest on one of Bali’s holiest days. 

But now police have responded that Omleth’s arrest was solely about how he allegedly defamed a state symbol by inappropriately handling the Indonesian merah-putih (red and white national flag) and not about the anti-reclamation movement. 

Police say they identified Omleth from CCTV recordings and say he violated Article 24 of Law No. 24/2009, which covers damaging, tearing, trampling, burning, or performing other actions with the intention of tarnishing, insulting, or degrading the honor of the state flag. 

“There is no other agenda than law enforcement, we are not getting into the whole reclamation issue,” Bali Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sugeng Priaynto said, as quoted by Tribun Bali

Though we should add, that this incident seems to be inextricably tied to Tolak Rekalmasi since it apparently happened at a mass Benoa Bay reclamation protest in Denpasar on Aug. 25

Omleth has denied that he defamed the national flag. Both the national flag and the flag of anti-reclamation organization FORBali were raised during the demo on Aug. 25, but Omleth says the merah putih was kept appropriately raised. 

“There was no act of vandalizing, ripping or any other acts undermining the flag,” he said, as quoted by Tempo

Omleth’s defense attorney Made Ariel Suardana said police did not follow proper procedure for the Galungan arrest. They didn’t present his client with a warrant and of course, the total faux pas of arresting him on Galungan, the lawyer said. 

The activist was held for five hours following his arrest and questioned over the incident. He was only released early to maintain public order on Galungan, police have said, explaining that they are not yet finished with him. 



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