The police report accusing President Joko Widodo’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep of hate speech continues to get even more ridiculous as more aspects of the case come to light.
Yesterday, the Bekasi City Police revealed that Muhammad Hidayat, the citizen who submitted the police report against Kaesang for hate speech, was himself a criminal suspect currently under investigation for hate speech.
“(The investigation) is still ongoing. He (Hidayat) was charged with hate speech for insulting members of the police during the 411 rally (against then-governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in November 4, 2017 organized by hardline Islamic groups),” said Bekasi City Police Chief Hero Henriato Bachtiar, as quoted by Tribun.
Jakarta Metro Police Spokesman Argo Yuwono said Hidayat was arrested on November 15, 2016 after he allegedly uploaded an edited video of Jakarta Metro Police Chief M Iriawan to make it look like he instigated chaos that occurred during the 411 rally. Hidayat was later released from police custody while the investigation into his case is ongoing.
In an interview with the media, Hidayat, the author of the report, claimed to not know that Kaesang was the president’s son. He confirmed that he filed the report after being offended by Kaesang’s derogatory use of the word ndeso but he also said he was surprised at how quickly the police acted on the report.
Ndeso is a Javanese word derived from the word for village (desa) that might colloquially be translated as yokel, redneck or bogan (depending on if you’re using American or Australian English). It is not generally considered a serious insult in Indonesian.
However, based on a copy of the criminal report circulating on the internet (which has not been confirmed to be the original), the accuser wrote that Kaesang’s hate speech was not specifically about the word ndeso but spreading religious hatred. Specifically, it referred to a quote from Kaesang’s vlog in which he said, “Pitting people against one another and accusing others of being disbelievers, refusing to perform (funeral) prayer rites for fellow Muslims just because of differing opinions on the choice of leaders, what gives? So ndeso.”
According to Kumparan, the report against the social media-savvy son of the president was filed with the Bekasi City Police on July 2. The vlog episode itself, titled #BapakMintaProyek, (a dig at the children of public officials who take advantage of their fathers’ positions for political or monetary favors) was posted on Youtube on May 27.
You can watch the episode here (in Indonesian):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHcbkeDgZ98
Among the people Kaesang criticized in the vlog were those who refused to perform funeral prayer rites for those who supported a non-Muslim political candidate (specifically, former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama) and people who allowed their kids to take part in a march literally calling for the murder of Ahok.
“I’m not defending Pak Ahok here, but I want to question why kids that young are capable of such a thing. It’s a shame that little kids like them have been taught to spread hate,” Kaesang said in the video.
Neither Kaesang nor President Jokowi have issued any statements regarding the hate speech accusation.
