Jakarta – The Indonesian Women's Alliance (API) held a flower-laying action in front of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police (Polda Metro Jaya) Headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday September 12 as an expression of their demand for the release of Lokataru Foundation Director Delpedro Marhaen and his comrades who are currently being detained.
According to CNN Indonesia's monitoring, the crowd scattered the flowers in front of the entrance gate to the Metro Jaya police station to form the words "Free Our Comrades" (Bebaskan Kawan Kami!!!).
The protesters also brought posters containing various demands including "Withdraw the TNI [Indonesian Military] and Polri [National Police]", "Protest is a Right," "Justice for the Victims" and messages demanding Marhaen's release.
"We, as the Indonesian Women's Alliance, will continue to monitor and safeguard our comrades who were arrested, not only at the Polda Metro Jaya, but also in Jogja [Jogjakarta], Kediri, Papua, Ambon, Samarinda and Makassar", said API spokesperson Mutiara Eka Pratiwi at the location on Wednesday.
"So there is Delpedro, there is Syahdan, then there are also female comrades with the initials FL, and G. Then there is also student comrades who were arrested, detained at the Polda Metro Jaya", she continued.
Through this flower-laying action, said Pratiwi, they want to convey that the demonstrations that took place in late August were not acts of treason or terrorism.
Rather, they were a form of concern on the part of citizens over various damage, poverty and violence that is occurring and has never been fully investigated.
"So, the actions we took the other day were not action that were then negative, the symbolic flowers we brought this afternoon was to show that protest is a right, that protest is a form of concern on the part of the Indonesian people regarding the various situations of injustice occurring in this country", she said.
Based on this, continued Pratiwi, they are urging President Prabowo Subianto to intervene to release the activists and demonstrators who are still being detained.
"The focus of our demands is for the president to immediately release all activists and demonstrators who have been arrested, not only unconditionally, not only at Polda, but also in various regions across Indonesia", she said.
The Metro Jaya Regional Police have named six people as suspects in cases of alleged incitement during the recent wave of demonstrations in August.
The six people are Delpedro Marhaen (DMR) who is also the administrator of the Instagram account @lokataru_foundation, Muzaffar Salim (MS) who is a Lokataru staff member and the administrator of the Instagram account @blokpolitikpelajar.
Then, Syahdan Husein (SH) as the administrator of the Instagram account @gejayanmemanggil, Khariq Anhar (KA) as the administrator of the Instagram account @AliansiMahasiswaPenggugat, RAP as the administrator of the IG account @RAP who allegedly played a role in producing a tutorial for making Molotov cocktails and as a coordinating courier in the field, and Figha Lesmana (FL) as the administrator of the TikTok account @fighaaaaa.
On Tuesday September 9, the Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, met and communicated with the Marhaen at the Metro Jaya Regional Police Detention Centre. From inside his detention cell, Marhaen told Mahendra that he was not guilty in the case of alleged incitement that has currently ensnared him.
"Thank you and God willing I'm ready to pursue the legal process. However it goes, we'll see later. God willing, from me, I remain [steadfast], God willing I'm innocent", said Marhaen in a video uploaded to Mahendra's Instagram account @yusrilihzamhd. (dis/gil)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Aliansi Perempuan Tabur Bunga di Polda Metro: Bebaskan Delpedro Dkk".]
