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'I went to prison and he got promoted': Indonesia's #MeToo moment
Sydney Morning Herald - December 22, 2018
This was Baiq Nuril Maknun's nightmare under Indonesia's infamous Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) law. Nuril was sentenced to six months' jail and fined about 13 years' salary at the minimum wage for "shaming" her boss and his family.
Her story is a singular reminder of how little impact the #MeToo movement a worldwide campaign against sexual harassment and sexual assault, particularly in the workplace has had in Indonesia, partly because of the ITE law.
The law, which was passed in 2008, covers everything that happens online, including banking transactions, pornography, defamation on social media and hate speech, and it has been criticised by rights groups such as Freedom House and Amnesty.
Nuril is a mother of three who lives on the Indonesian island of Lombok, and she is at the centre of a case that traverses internet regulation, harassment and Indonesian attitudes to sex, power and the role of men and women.
While there is a growing expectation that women should not be subject to harassment in the workplace, the country's Supreme Court has judged that she broke the law, sentencing her to prison and a 500 million rupiah fine (about $48,000), or another three months in jail if she can't pay.
The 'vulgar details'
It started in 2013, when Nuril was working as an administrative assistant at a school in Lombok. The school's principal, Haji Muslim, had an affair with a married colleague, a woman named Landriati.
Somehow Nuril, an observant Muslim, got roped into being the couple's alibi. She would accompany them on "work trips" as cover, then they would ask her to leave so the couple could spend time together. Soon, Haji Muslim started to regale her with stories.
"He shared vulgar details of their sexual experiences," Nuril tells The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. "I told him to stop, he just continued. Whenever there was only the two of us, he would share graphic details of their sexual acts. He would even pose in their positions for me.
"I repeatedly asked him to stop, and after a while I just kept quiet and kept my head down. I don't know why he would tell me maybe to brag, maybe to get me to have an affair with him, or maybe because he knew I would never tell anyone at school."
Nuril told her husband, who was asking her why she was often late home. "He didn't like it. But I needed the job, so I did nothing. I didn't know what he did was sexual harassment. Not then, but I know now."
Eventually, in early 2014, Nuril was fed up and recorded one of the regular phone calls Haji Muslim made to her, detailing his affair. She only played the audio to two people: her husband and a colleague who suspected Nuril herself was having an affair with the headmaster.
But a few months later another male colleague of Nuril's, a man named Haji Imam Mudawin, asked for a copy. Mudawin said he needed the audio to help him remove the principal from his position.
That's when things took a dramatic turn for the worse for Nuril. The audio was shared widely within school circles. The principal's secret affair was out.
Demoted and jailed
When Haji Muslim next issued contracts for people to work at the school, Nuril's name was not on the list. "I wasn't exactly fired, but no longer employed, just like that, no explanations, no nothing," she says.
She told the headmaster how upset she was, adding that she had not shared the recording broadly. Haji Muslim said he would issue her a new contract, but before that could happen he was moved.
"He is currently quite a high-ranking official at the education department in Mataram [the capital of Lombok]. I lost my job, went to prison and he gets promoted," she said.
At the end of 2014, Haji Muslim filed a police report against Nuril, alleging she distributed audio with immoral content, then he demanded $48,000 "compensation" to withdraw it a staggering sum in a country where the minimum wage is about $300 per month.
Nuril was called in for questioning by the police, but years passed and there was no further progress. Choking back tears, she recalls the day in 2016 that she was arrested.
"I was called by the police to come to the station, I took my youngest son with me. They told me I have to get someone to care for my boy because I am going to prison," she says.
"I felt like the world ended, I was so crushed, my husband had to return from one of the Gili Islands [holiday islands where he worked] to fetch my son. I was in the police cell for 15 days, then more than 15 days at the Mataram prison. I couldn't sleep, I kept crying, I couldn't eat."
Nuril was acquitted by the local district court, but prosecutors appealed to Indonesia's Supreme Court. Last month, the court imposed a six-month sentence and a 500 million rupiah fine. Chief judge Sri Murwahyuni said the court had found her convincingly guilty of the criminal act of distributing, transmitting or allowing access to electronic information that had immoral content.
The end of Haji Muslim's career as a school principal and the shame Nuril had caused him and his family were aggravating factors, the judge said.
Amnesty International's Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid has said this was another example of how the ITE law is being used to repress people, and was a travesty of justice.
Time for an Indonesian #MeToo
Tunggal Pawestri, a women's rights activist and movie producer, says there is little incentive for women in Indonesia to come forward and share their stories.
"There is no adequate law to protect them, they will be blamed for it instead of protected and supported," she says.
"The #MeToo movement, it's not that it doesn't exist in Indonesia, but yes, it's not as big as in other countries. The culture in Indonesia, victim blaming, it's happening in every level of the community. Baiq Nuril's case is a good example. Our laws failed to protect her."
At a rally in Jakarta over a week ago attended by about 2000 people, Pawestri helped lead protests arguing for stronger laws to eradicate sexual violence.
Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a member of Indonesia's parliament, supports the push for a new law. She has followed Nuril's case closely and believes she is not guilty.
Nuril's last chance in court is a case review being prepared by her legal team. Yan Mangandar Putra, a member of Nuril's legal team from Mataram University, says the Supreme Court made errors in its ruling.
Her legal team has also filed a police report against Haji Muslim. But the Indonesian wheels of justice tend to turn slowly. Komang Suartana, a spokesman for the local West Nusa Tenggara police, says their investigation is still at a preliminary stage.
Dr Asmuni, a lawyer acting for Haji Muslim, says his client does not wish to speak to the media nor argue the case in public, but insists his client had told police "the total opposite" of Nuril's account.
In the meantime, the Indonesian Attorney-General's office has said they will not execute the Supreme Court's judgement, keeping Nuril out of jail until her case review is completed.
The president intervenes
The case has become so high profile in Indonesia that even President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has weighed in. "If after the judicial review she doesn't get justice, she can apply for a presidential pardon," Jokowi said last month. "When it's at the pardon stage, I'll take over."
Asked what advice she would give her daughters now, Nuril initially says that she has told them "to dress properly, to stay away from improper situations. Be modest, to not dress [in a way] that reveals their bodies."
When it is pointed out that Nuril herself dresses modestly, she grows defiant.
"I will tell them not to take it, not to allow something like this to happen to them. To fight, don't just stay quiet.
"I will continue to fight, I will continue the case against [Haji] Muslim. I regret staying silent. I regret not doing anything then... I never wanted any of this. But I will fight."
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