Jakarta – The Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD) rejects the charges against activists who have been arrested for allegedly inciting students and children to take part in demonstration at the end of August.
TAUD criticised the police's use of Article 76H under Law Number 35/2014 on Child Protection. "So friends, what our clients did does not mean inciting children", said Sekar Banjaran Aji at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) offices in Jakarta on Saturday September 6.
Aji said the actions by activists such as Delpedro Marhaen who are now suspects were actually to protect children by providing knowledge so that they always think critically.
He stated that children also have the right to develop to the maximum, they have the right to be active and be allowed to think critically.
"And in that context the work of child protection should be able to work because of democracy. Without democracy the work of child protection will not happen", he said.
Aji also regretted this, stressing that children must also be heard, not actually silenced.
"And what our clients did was to provide information, giving knowledge about what the state should do, how to practice the right to speak out, that's what it should do", he said.
The Metro Jaya Jakarta Regional Police (Polda) have named 43 people suspects related to vandalism during the demonstrations that took place in Jakarta on August 25-31. Of that number, 38 have been detained.
Of the 43 suspects, six are included in the incitement cluster. They are said to have spread invitations to commit vandalism through social media and flyers by targeting students and children to take to the streets, even utilising influencers to motivate these actions.
The six people are the Director of Lokataru Foundation, Delpedro Marhaen (DMR), who is also the administrator of the Instagram account @lokataru_foundation, Lokataru staff member Muzaffar Salim (MS) as the administrator of the Instagram account @blokpolitikpelajar, and Syahdan Husein (SH) as the administrator of the Instagram account @gejayan.
Then Khariq Anhar (KA) as the administrator of the Instagram account @alalsimahasiswapenggatan, RAP as the administrator of the IG @RAP account who also played a role in making a tutorial on how to make a Molotov cocktail and as a coordinating courier in the field, and Figha Lesmana (FL) as the administrator of the TikTok account @fighaaaaa.
Metro Jaya Police General Crimes Detectives Deputy Director Assistant Superintendent Putu Kholis Aryana said that high school students were allegedly paid to take part in the demonstrations in the Jakarta area last week.
"There are indications of children being given compensation to hold actions. It's still with investigators. It is part of the initial data that we used to uncover this network, this group", Aryana told reporters on Friday September 5. (fra/mnf/fra)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "TAUD Bantah Tuduhan Aktivis Hasut Anak Ikut Demo Agustus".]
