A public official in the Jeneponto district of South Sulawesi has been accused of inappropriate behavior towards his subordinate while they were taking a selfie together.
The alleged perpetrator, identified by his initial S, is a department head in a district government office. Last Tuesday, he called his employee, identified by her initial J, into his office for some snaps to mark a special occasion.
“(The incident happened) after an inauguration event for new members of the regional council (DPRD), around 10 in the morning. His excuse was he wanted to take selfies. Because he was just elected, he was wearing a suit, and maybe because he was still dressed up, he called her [and said], ‘Let’s take a selfie first’. Then it happened (a kiss on her cheek), according to the victim’s statement,” Jeneponto Police Crime Investigations Unit Head Boby Rachman said on Friday, as quoted by Detik.
Boby said they took two selfies together; the first time with S holding the phone and the second time with J holding the phone. S allegedly kissed J on the second take.
J immediately reported S to the Jeneponto Police. S was soon summoned by representatives from the regional government but denied having kissed J on the cheek. On Friday, Police held a reconstruction with J and two of her colleagues at the government office.
Today, police upgraded J’s report to a formal investigation because they said the case fulfilled the elements of sexual harassment under the Criminal Code. At this stage, police will question J and S as well as her two colleagues. As of today, S has not been criminally charged and is being questioned as a witness.
Another recent sexual harassment case that made headlines in Indonesia involved a female teacher reporting her male principal to the authorities, which ultimately led to the teacher getting convicted for defaming her boss and being sentenced to six months in prison. Thankfully, President Joko Widodo granted amnesty to the victim, but activists warned that more harassment victims could be criminalized by defamation charges unless laws are changed to give better protections to victims of sexual abuse.
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