A former supervisory board member at the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan), Syafri Adnan Baharuddi, has gone on the offensive amid an ongoing investigation into accusations from his former secretary that he had repeatedly sexually harassed.
Syafri and his attorney yesterday filed an official complaint to the National Police’s Crime Investigation Division (Bareskrim) against his former secretary (who goes by the pseudonym Dina) and Ade Armando — a Universitas Indonesia (UI) lecturer famous for escaping a blasphemy charge and is aiding Dina , in her pursuit of justice against her former boss — for defamation against the Syafri.
As reported by Kompas, Syafri is demanding that the police charge Dina and Ade for defamation under the Criminal Code (KUHP) as well as the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) — which criminalizes the dissemination of any defamatory information online — for posting the sexual harassment allegations on social media. Convictions under those laws include punishments of up to four and 12 years imprisonment.
Speaking to the press, Ade said he respects Syafri’s right to report them, but said it would only push him to keep supporting Dina as well as uncover more of the alleged scandal within BPJS Ketenagakerjaan’s Supervisory Board.
“Defamation would mean me lying about someone who has good character. What I did was report the suspicion of a sexual crime in a respected institution. How is that defamation?” Ade said, as quoted by Kompas.
“I expected them to report us back. This is actually driving me to blow the lid on crimes committed by the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Supervisory Board. We have a lot of data, not just sexual [crimes].”
In an interview with Tirto published last month, Dina said Syafri — for whom she worked as a secretary — came on to her and asked if he could kiss her in July of 2016. Things escalated from there, with Dina claiming that her boss forced her to have sex with him on numerous occasions.
“There was psychological abuse whenever I refused him and escaped his sexual advances, like him making the atmosphere at work uncomfortable, screaming at me over bad things I supposedly did,” Dina told Tirto.
On November 28, Dina said she filed a complaint to the chairman of the Supervisory Board. However, two days later, she received a notice for the termination of her employment, which said that her last day on the job was going to be Dec 5.
“[The notice] completely disregarded the true crime, which is the sexual harassment committed by the board member,” she said.
Since then, Dina has sought assistance from legal aid groups and feminist groups, some of whom have reported the case all the way up to President Joko Widodo. The president directly appointed the members of the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Supervisory Board, including the alleged perpetrator.
Soon after Syafri was reported to the police for sexual harassment, he stepped down from the Supervisory Board, claiming that it was not an admission of guilt but rather he wanted to focus on clearing his name.
