Regarding the May 1998 Tragedy, Fadli Zon Supports PTUN's Rejection of Civil Coalition Lawsuit
Culture Minister Fadli Zon stated that the Administrative Court (PTUN) Jakarta’s decision not to accept the lawsuit from the Coalition of Civil Society Against Impunity regarding his comments on the mass rapes of May 1998 aligned with his expectations.
“I think that decision is in line with what I expected. In my opinion, there is no evidence supporting the occurrence of mass rapes in 1998. If rapes occurred, they might have, but not by state actors, not systematically,” said Fadli Zon in Beijing to ANTARA on Sunday (26/4) night.
Previously, on 21 April 2026, PTUN Jakarta declared it could not accept the lawsuit from the Coalition of Civil Society Against Impunity related to Fadli Zon’s statements. The panel of judges granted the defendant’s exception on absolute competence, stating that PTUN Jakarta was not authorised to adjudicate the case.
Fadli Zon had previously expressed views on the May 1998 riots, including in a podcast on 10 June 2025 and an official statement on 16 June 2026. In those statements, he referenced the Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) report, which he said lacked strong evidence, and cautioned against “embarrassing the nation ourselves”.
“The 1998 rapes were not structured; the perpetrators were criminals, thugs, and so on. We do not want to distort history. I have also conducted studies and written a book on this,” he said.
“That has nothing to do with history books. Initially, I mentioned it in a podcast, and I have explained it clearly in the DPR,” he added.
Fadli also emphasised that the government must not distort history but maintained there was no legal evidence indicating the events were structured state actions.
“That it did not happen, and there is no legal evidence for it. But if there were rapes, yes, they might have occurred, but not as people imagine, like there being actors planning it, such as the ‘Nanjing Massacre’ in China, where thousands of women were raped by Japanese soldiers, or the rapes of Bosnians by Serbian troops—that is ‘state actor’, whereas what happened in 1998 was ‘riots’ (riots),” Fadli explained.
The coalition deemed those statements to exceed the authority of the Culture Minister and to contradict several provisions, including the State Administration Law, the Human Rights Law, and the Human Rights Court Law.
The lawsuit was filed after administrative objections to Fadli Zon and an administrative appeal to the President received no response. Public lawyer from LBH Jakarta, Daniel Winarta, stated that his side would file an appeal to the High Administrative Court.