Mahfud MD: Saiful Mujani's Statement on Ousting Prabowo Is Not Sedition
Former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD assesses that Saiful Mujani’s statement regarding the ousting of President Prabowo Subianto cannot be categorised as sedition.
Mahfud explained that in the new Criminal Code (KUHP), sedition is regulated in a single article, namely Article 193.
“The term sedition is actually regulated in just one article, Article 193, with two paragraphs. The first one refers to sedition with the intent to overthrow the government that is not in accordance with the Constitution. So, it means intending to overthrow,” said Mahfud, quoted from an upload on his personal YouTube account, on Thursday (9/4).
This constitutional law expert stated that the KUHP explains that overthrowing the government means eliminating or changing the government’s structure in an unlawful manner according to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
According to him, Saiful Mujani’s statement cannot be said to fall into the category of sedition if it is not followed by actions.
“When does a speech eliminate? And what are the steps? What is being changed?” said Mahfud.
“Therefore, in Saiful Mujani’s statement, there is absolutely no element present in the new KUHP Article 193, namely replacing and eliminating the government structure. Remember, it mentions the government structure there. What is meant by government structure? Is it the structure or the officials? It’s not clear, so immediately calling it sedition is wrong, wrong, too emotional,” he added.
Nevertheless, Mahfud admitted that he does not agree with efforts to topple the government in the middle of its term because it would create further problems.
He asked the government to use criticism as material for evaluation to improve future performance.
“But this is criticism, that it’s not sedition. What is the way out? For the government, improve it. There are still three and a half years left to improve. It’s only been one year and eight months, and there are already many problems like this. These criticisms must be accommodated,” he said.
Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya had previously responded to Saiful Mujani’s statement regarding the call to overthrow the government. He claimed not to have known about Mujani’s statement yet.
“I have a lot of work, I haven’t seen what he said,” said Teddy at the Presidential Palace Complex in Jakarta, on Tuesday (7/4).
Besides himself, he mentioned that President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto is also busy with more important matters. He said Prabowo is focusing on more strategic issues.
“Especially the President, the President is handling big things, focusing on more strategic matters,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Saiful Mujani stated that his statement calling for consolidation to oust President Prabowo Subianto is not a form of sedition, but part of a political stance.
“The question is, can my statement be called sedition? I emphasise that it is not sedition, but political engagement, namely a political stance or a stance expressed on political issues in front of many people. The politics in that event mainly relates to President Prabowo’s performance,” said Mujani in a written statement.
He explained that a political stance is one level below political participation or political action. Political participation, he said, is the core of democracy.
Mujani said there is no democracy without political participation.
“Political participation or actions aimed at the public interest take many forms. For example, voting in elections, campaigning, contributing to parties or candidates, participating in political actions like demonstrations, strikes, sabotage, and so on, done peacefully. Peacefully ousting the president is political participation. That is democracy,” he stated.