In one of the most worrying abuses of the controversial Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) in recent times, a man from Samarinda, East Kalimantan, earlier this week was arrested just because he sent a text message to his mayor complaining about the city’s flood problem.
Thankfully, that citizen, who has been identified as 64 year-old Abdul Hamid, a grandfather to six grandchildren, was released yesterday after the mayor, Syaharie Jaang, accepted his apology and pulled the charges against Hamid.
“[Hamid] has been forgiven, the mayor forgave him. Because this is Ramadan, the mayor forgave him and all is well,” said Samarinda Police Chief Grand Commissioner M Setyobudi Dwiputro, as quoted by Tribunnews.
Speaking to Tribunnews, Hamid explained that he sent a text message to the mayor on June 12 after going around his neighborhood and seeing that most of it was flooded. On June 18, the police arrested him from his home during iftar time.
Hamid said he regretted his action and eventually apologized to the mayor before being released on June 21.
According to Samarinda Pos, the local paper that first broke this story, Hamid’s text message read:
“10 years as deputy mayor and 6 years as mayor of Samarinda yet [Jaang] can’t fix the floods [problem].”
However, the police said, without going into specifics, that there was more to the text message, which is why it could have insulted the mayor on a personal level.
“Other than the critique about the flood, the SMS also contained an insult [as Hamid] pointed out similarities between the mayor and a figure who we can’t name,” said Setyobudi.
While we’re glad that Hamid is finally out of jail, his case is further proof that UU ITE can be used by those in power to silence legitimate criticisms coming from the people they’re supposed to serve.
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