The press organization of the Law Faculty at Universitas Dipenogoro (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, had to cancel their planned discussion on LGBT awareness because of alleged pressure from local authorities.
The discussion was planned for yesterday. However, just hours before the event was scheduled to take place, security guards and cleaners at the campus told organizers that the discussion was cancelled under the instruction of the university’s rector, Yos Johan Utama.
Yos explained to Tempo that LGBT issues are a sensitive topic that goes against religious teachings.
“Discussions are meant to solve issues, not create them,” Yos said, as quoted by Tempo today.
“Undip highly promotes religious values and deeds.”
Febri Tuanto, chairman of the law faculty’s press organization, suspects that the discussion was cancelled because of external pressure.
“Some police officers and members of religious mass organizations visited the law faculty on campus,” he said.
Febri added that officers from the Semarang Police also visited the campus to make sure that the discussion was cancelled. The police warned of repercussions from local mass organizations if the students chose to go ahead with the event.
Unfortunately, freedom of speech remains limited in Indonesia, especially when discussing “sensitive” topics like LGBT awareness. Not only that, authorities in Bali also recently forced the cancellation of a discussion on the 1965 PKI massacres at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Police Chief Badrodin Haiti recently released a circular instructing police officers to combat hate speech in all of its forms. Free speech advocates have criticized the circular, saying it will lead to the police cracking down on legitimate criticisms of the government, but Haiti has argued that it is necessary to prevent social conflict. However, the Criminal Code states that hate speech is “aimed at instigating hatred based on ethnicities, religions, beliefs, races, sexual orientations, skin colors and disabilities.”
So will we see the police investigate this case of hate speech, with threats of violence, due to sexual orientation? We’re not holding our breath.
