Army Chief of Staff: No direct instruction on dispersing the 'Pesta Babi' screening

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army (KSAD), General Maruli Simanjuntak, said there were no direct instructions to the ranks regarding dispersing the group screening of the film Pesta Babi: Kolonialisme di Zaman Kita. Maruli, when questioned after a working meeting with Commission I of the DPR RI at the Parliament complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Tuesday, described the dispersal of group screenings as a request from the local government authorities (pemda) there. ‘Dispersal comes from the local government for the security of the area. That is the responsibility of the regional coordinator among government officials there who regard there is a risk of unrest. There were no direct instructions, really,’ he said. According to Maruli, the dispersal of group screenings in several regions is the result of coordination and decisions by local government for the sake of area security. ‘Local governments coordinate. They have the authority to secure the region, to protect their students, because the veracity of this film’s claims is not necessarily true either,’ he said. Regarding the substance of the film, Maruli also questioned the funding of the documentary. ‘Now the issue is, people go so far as to produce videos detailing how the story is told, and so on—where does the money come from? Just think about it. People come here, make videos. Fly here, fly there. Wealthy people, of course,’ the Army Chief of Staff said. Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the dispersal of the screening of Pesta Babi is not an instruction from the government or law enforcement authorities. Yusril, when contacted in Jakarta on Thursday (14/5), said not all campuses prohibit the screening of the documentary. In his view, the pattern indicates the dispersal was not issued via centralised instruction. ‘Looking at such a pattern, the dispersal of the Pesta Babi screening is not an instruction from the government or the law enforcement agencies, which are usually centralised,’ he said. He explained that the documentary criticises a national strategic project (PSN) in South Papua that is considered to threaten the preservation of nature, the customary rights of the Papuan people, and the environment. For Yusril, such criticism is normal, even though there are narratives regarded as provocative.