Memes accusing gov’t of racist double standard proven wrong after teen who threatened Jokowi named suspect

RTJ, a 16-year-old Jakartan who threatened to kill President Joko Widodo in a viral video. Photo: Video screengrab
RTJ, a 16-year-old Jakartan who threatened to kill President Joko Widodo in a viral video. Photo: Video screengrab

Racial tensions have been rising in Indonesia in recent years, one recent example being the way some netizens reacted to news about a 16-year-old Chinese-Indonesian who threatened to kill President Jokowi in a viral video by spewing premature accusations about the government giving him preferential treatment just because of his race.

The teenager, identified by his initials RTJ, was arrested on Wednesday over a video in which he was recorded saying, “Crazy Jokowi, I’ll burn his house down. President, I challenge you, find me within 24 hours. You don’t find me, I win.” RTJ later told the police that he did it as a joke after being dared by his friends. He and his father also posted an apology video yesterday.

RTJ was released from police custody after his initial questioning yesterday, as police procedure only allows them to detain individuals for 24 hours if they haven’t been named a suspect. Some netizens took that to mean that RTJ was getting preferential treatment since there had been previous cases in which non-Chinese Indonesians were put in jail for merely insulting the president.

Memes highlighting this supposed discrimination began popping up on social media, such as this one comparing the fate of RTJ to that of an 18-year-old Islamic school student who was sentenced to 1.5 years in jail in January for defamation against Jokowi.

https://twitter.com/NetizenTofa/status/999490623878000640

Many more memes of that ilk went viral, with the common thread being that Muslims who insulted Jokowi or the government got what was coming to them whereas the police were supposedly content with RTJ’s explanation that he was only joking.

But it turned out that RTJ was not getting preferential treatment after all — the Jakarta Metro Police today announced that he has been named a defamation suspect under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), despite the fact that he’s still a minor at 16.

“We have placed him [at a social agency] as a child who is facing legal action,” said Jakarta Metro Police Spokesperson Argo Yuwono today, as quoted by Suara.

Argo said that RTJ was made a criminal suspect for making threats against another person online, which is punishable by up to 6 years in prison under UU ITE.



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