JG/Camelia Pasandaran

SBY Team Calls for Indonesian Law To Shield ‘State Symbols’

A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday called for a law banning the desecration of state symbols, as uproar over the use of a buffalo as the president’s proxy in a demonstration last week continued.

“In the past, the legal case for insulting the head of state was clear,” Julian Aldrin Pasha said at the Presidential Palace. “However, it has been [annulled by the Constitutional Court], freeing people to do it.

“But this nation respects the law and we cannot allow excessive actions, especially humiliating the nation’s head, without any consequence or responsibility,” he said. “Those in authority to draft regulations concerning respect to the state symbols should review the current regulations.”

In December 2006, the Constitutional Court annulled three articles in the Criminal Code that set prison sentences of up to six years or a fine of Rp 400,000 ($42.80) for mocking the president in public or private.

On Tuesday, Yudhoyono complained about a protest at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Saturday in which protesters brought along a buffalo, saying it was meant to symbolize the president being as “big, stupid and lazy” as the animal.

Yudhoyono called on the protesters, who taped a picture of him to the buffalo, to mind their manners as they exercised their democratic rights.

The demonstrators apparently did not get the message because on Thursday, a group called the Youth Coalition for Anti-Corruption (Kapak) brought along a monkey to a protest outside the headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The change in animal came after police on Wednesday stopped a truck carrying the now famous bovine named “Si Lebay” from entering Jakarta.

State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said on Thursday that there was an existing law prohibiting people from bringing animals to demonstrations.

“There’s a risk that the animal may get angry and nobody will be responsible for it,” he said.

Julian said the president did not have any plans to file a complaint against the protesters who used the buffalo.

“He just wants future demonstrations to be in line with decency, not out of context and overreacting with no substance, instead only blaspheming state symbols,” he said.

Julian rejected suggestions that Yudhoyono himself was overreacting in his complaints about criticism from the ongoing PT Bank Century scandal. He said he was only giving advice about civility.

“It is a normal thing,” Julian said. “If, as a citizen, I am being compared to the buffalo with my photo on it, [how] could I smile and be happy?”

Administrative law expert Refly Harun said the president should not pursue a new law to silence demonstrators. “Criticism and mocking are a consequence of his position,” Refly said.

“If there were slander or defamation toward him, he should use normal administrative law, which applies to all ordinary citizens. We don’t need any special regulation to protect the head of the nation or to cover other public officials from criticism.”

First lady Ani Yudhoyono has also waded into the controversy, asking the wives of Indonesian diplomats during a gathering at the palace to help clarify any misinterpretations in the foreign media about the recent demonstrations. “To keep good relations between government and the business world, we need to clarify if there are any misperceptions about Indonesia,” she said.

He is a cry baby

Is he going to spend the whole of his second term pissing and moaning?