TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Abdullah Al Katiri, the chairman of the Indonesian Muslim Advocate Association [IKAMI], said the case of Sukmawati’s poem, which many alleged to have insulted Islam—could not be settled through restorative justice approaches that underscore justice and balance for both suspects and victims.
Al Katiri said such approaches were only possible should the objects in the case be humans or some particular societies, and if the case was an offense that warranted complaints.
“While Sukmawati’s case is a general offense, as opposed to an offense that warrants complaints. And the object in the case was not a human, but rather a religion, and that her action was a blasphemy against a religion observed by Muslims worldwide, instead of only those in Indonesia,” he said in a written statement Tempo received on Friday, April 6, 2018.
Read: Rally Against Sukmawati to Keep Going Despite MUI Clemency
Earlier, multiple Muslim parties filed a lawsuit against Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, a daughter of Indonesia’s founding father-cum-first president Soekarno, for the latter’s poem they claimed as an insult against Muslims.
Sukmawati recited the poem, titled Ibu Indonesia, at the celebration of Anne Avantie’s 29th anniversary of work at the 2018 Indonesia Fashion Week in Jakarta, March 29, 2018.
The words in the poetry deemed as insults against Islam were about the Islamic sharia, niqab [Islamic full-face veils], and Islamic call for prayers, or adzan.
Previously, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto said Sukmawati's case could be settled through restorative justice approaches. “But if it has to go to court we will process it based on regulations,” he said at the National Police HQ in South Jakarta on Thursday, March 5, 2018.
M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH
