Activist stands trial for insulting Megawati

Activist stands trial for insulting Megawati

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An activist from the radical group Islamic Youth Movement
(GPI) was on trial on Monday for allegedly insulting President
Megawati Soekarnoputri during an antigovernment protest in mid-
February.

The defendant, M. Iqbal Siregar, was charged with violating
Article 134 of the Criminal Code, which relates to the
intentional insult of the president or vice president, and
carries a maximum penalty of six year's imprisonment. He was also
accused of violating Article 137 (1) on publicizing such
behavior, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

The article is known here as a pasal karet (catchall article),
because in the past, the New Order regime drew upon it to
suppress its political opponents.

The indictment, read by chief prosecutor Arnold Angkouw, said
that during an antigovernment protest on Jan. 15, the defendant
carried a picture of Megawati that had black tape over her eyes
and the words "Hunted by the public" imprinted on top.

"He then showed the picture to the crowd, saying, 'this is the
President who has disappointed citizens'," Arnold said, adding
that the defendant then threw the pictures onto busy Jl. Merdeka
Utara, Central Jakarta, for them to be run over by vehicles.

The chief prosecutor said that such an act constituted an
intentional insult of the President.

Iqbal carried out the act during a protest against a number of
Megawati administration policies, which, he said, had added to
the plight of the populace. The rally was also attended by other
groups, including the Islamic Students Association (HMI), the
Alliance Against Mega (ATM) and the Jakarta Student Executive
Bodies (BEM).

The trial for Iqbal was the third to be held in the country
during Megawati's term as president. Late last year, Muzakkir and
Nanang Mamija, respectively from the Populist Youth Movement
(GPK) and the National Farmers Federation (STN), were sentenced
to one year in prison after being proven guilty of stamping
on pictures of Megawati and Vice President Hamzah Haz.

Currently, the trials of three student activists, Rico Marbun,
Fathul Nugroho and Ardy Purnawanani, accused of insulting state
leaders, are still under way.

Moments before presiding judge Cornel Sianturi concluded the
hearing, the defendants' lawyer, Taufik Basari, said that the
team of advocates would submit a case for the defense. The judge
later agreed that it could be heard on Thursday.

After the hearing was over, Iqbal -- who had been in custody
for 80 days, the last time in Salemba prison, Central Jakarta --
said that his trial was but one example of how the Megawati
administration was following the path of the authoritarian regime
of former president Soeharto in using the catchall article to
curb protests against his government.

"These articles (134 and 137) will simply kill off the
country's burgeoning democracy," Iqbal said.

Citing that the trial could become a bad precedent for the
prodemocracy movement in the future, he said: "If the articles
are strictly applied, thousands of our young, opposed to
government policy, will crowd the country's prisons."

Reiterating Iqbal's statement, Taufik said that the use of
catchall articles against political activists showed that the
Megawati administration was indeed a repressive regime.