Bandung’s Telkom University — the educational wing of state-owned telecommunications firm Telkom — is launching an inquiry into allegations that a female student in the university was repeatedly raped by her senior.
A statement released yesterday by United Voice Bandung, an independent union of Bandung-based university students, alleged that in November 2018, a student identified by her initials GS (19), began to receive attention from a senior student, who is identified by his initials FGH (21).
According to the statement, FGH began courting GS and she did not explicitly reject his relatively polite advances in the beginning due to the cultural idea that juniors must respect seniors on campus and that FGH appeared to be a pious young man. However, within about a week, FGH became more assertive in his courting of GS, to the point that he demanded her to send him nude photos of herself.
After one night at the movies, FGH refused GS’ request to be driven back to her dorm, and instead took her to his room. United Voice Bandung says that when FGH first attempted to rape GS, she suffered from tonic immobility — a state of involuntary paralysis sexual assault victims can enter — hindering her ability to fight back. GS was allegedly kept in FGH’s room for about a week, where she was repeatedly raped.
GS was eventually able to escape from FGH’s clutches. However, she began exhibiting symptoms consistent with rape trauma syndrome and was hospitalized following a suicide attempt, saying that she was angered at being the only one to suffer following the sexual abuse while FGH was able to live his life as if nothing happened.
Driven by that frustration, GS reported FGH to her faculty’s student council (of which he is a member), which initially promised stern sanctions against him. However, the council never came through on the promise and instead blocked GS from attaining her wish of joining their ranks on account of her mental state.
This month, the council held a session in which GS and FGH told their sides of the story, which resulted in FGH confessing to raping GS and agreeing to posting a public apology on social media. That said, as of Dec. 28, FGH has not apologized.
In the statement, United Voice Bandung demanded that Telkom University expel FGH and foster an environment in which sexual predators aren’t tolerated on campus, as well as calling on students to support victims of sexual crimes.
Telkom University officials said that they only recently became aware of the allegations after United Voice Bandung’s statement attracted considerable attention nationwide. The university is promising “an open mind” as it launches an official inquiry into the matter. There are no reports yet of the police getting involved.
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