Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition is warning President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to comply with the call by thousands of people who want the acid attack on senior Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan solved.
Lokataru Foundation communications officer and Kamisan (Thursday action) activist Ahmad Sajali said that Widodo must have the courage to make a decision to support the call even though it could have a negative impact on Widodo’s image.
“Around 250 thousand people have already signed the petition on change.org. This is a nominal figure reflecting the anxiety of people who want this case resolved and not be repeated”, Sajali told CNN Indonesia following a discussion titled Two Years of the Novel Case in the Lebak Bulus area of South Jakarta on Wednesday evening, April 10.
Sajali again brought up the findings of the Civil Society Coalition investigation into the case which were released in January. The report contains the names of the actors behind the attack, one of which is alleged to be a former senior police general.
Sajali believes that Widodo must have the courage to make a decision to resolve the Novel case even though it could trigger new conflicts because of the alleged involvement of a senior police general.
“But how can he (Jokowi) not hear the voices of these 250 thousand people who are ready to appreciate his work if the Novel Baswedan case is exposed”, said Sajali.
Sajali said that the 250 thousand people are people who care about and want the country to hold human rights in the highest esteem. Sajali is worried that if the Baswedan case is never solved, there will be fear among the public who feel the state is unable to protect its citizens from human rights violations.
“Fear will surface, if an [attack on a] figure as important as Novel can’t be resolved later [similar attacks] could befall other names”, said Sajali.
Sajali is convinced that fully resolving the Baswedan case depends upon the political will of the government. Law enforcement procedures already exist and should be pursued.
“All that’s left is for it to be uncovered and to undertake an investigation, a criminal investigation and a trial so that we can know in coming days who the mastermind behind the Novel case is and what their motives were”, said Sajali.
Sajali said that if the mastermind behind the attack is revealed, the case can be used as an evaluation to carry out internal reform within the organisation [the police] to make it better.
“So we can create a system that is not corrupt and in the future will not obstruct the legal processes that are talking place in our country”, he said. (jnp/wis)
Notes
The acid attack on senior KPK investigator Novel Baswedan, which took place on April 11, 2017 as he was walking home after Friday prayers, is widely believed to be related to an investigation which Baswedan and the KPK were conducting into dozens of senior politicians involved in the e-KTP electronic ID card corruption scandal. Under mounting public pressure, in December 2018 the government formed a Joint Fact Finding Team (TGPF) to investigate the case involving the KPK, experts and senior police officials – despite the fact that on several occasions Baswedan has said that he suspects a senior “police general” was the behind the attack – and the very reason many believe police have made no progress in the case.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Aktivis HAM Ingatkan Jokowi Serap Suara Rakyat soal Novel”.]
