It looks like President Joko Widodo’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep won’t become the latest high-profile victim of Indonesia’s controversial and ambiguously worded hate speech and blasphemy laws.
Indonesia’s National Police deputy chief, Commissioner General Syafruddin, today told the media that the criminal report submitted against Kaesang for supposed hate speech in his vlog won’t be processed.
“There’s no (criminal element). It’s ridiculous. There’s no link (to hate speech) at all,” Syafruddin said, as quoted by Detik.
Syafruddin’s statement is the closest there has been to official confirmation that the president’s son won’t be the subject of a criminal investigation. It also contradicts a statement made by the police yesterday saying that they would call Kaesang and his accuser, a citizen named Muhammad Hidayat, as well as expert witnesses in for questioning in relation to the police report.
According to Kumparan, the report against the social media-savvy son of the president was filed with the Bekasi City Police on July 2 by a citizen named Muhammad Hidayat. The vlog episode itself, titled #BapakMintaProyek, (a dig at children of public officials who take advantage of their fathers’ positions for political or monetary favors) was posted on Youtube on May 27.
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.
Incredibly, Kaesang’s accuser was revealed to be a suspect in a current police investigation for hate speech.
Neither Kaesang nor President Jokowi have issued any statements regarding the hate speech accusation.
