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| Thousands of Indonesians have dumped old sandals at police stations and prosecutor offices to help protest for a 15-year-old boy being prosecuted for lifting an old pair of sandals in Central Sulawesi province. Photo / AP |
Indonesians
have found a new symbol for their growing frustration at uneven justice in
their young, democratic nation: cheap, worn-out flip-flops.
They have
been dropping them off at police stations all over the sprawling archipelago to
express outrage over the arrest and trial of a 15-year-old boy for lifting an
old pair of white sandals from outside a boarding house used by police in
northern Indonesia.
"This
is insane," said Titis Anissa, a high school teacher in the capital,
Jakarta, noting that government officials found guilty of plundering state
coffers get off with a slap on the wrist. "And a young, poor boy takes a
pair of $3 sandals? Enough already!"
The boy
snatched the shoes while he and several friends headed home from school in
Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, in November 2010.
He was
later interrogated and badly beaten by three officers, and faces up to five
years in prison if found guilty - the same sentence given to many terrorists,
drug pushers and rapists.
He will
appear Wednesday before the court in Palu for the second hearing of his trial,
which opened last month.
Indonesia
has made tremendous strides since the ouster of longtime dictator Suharto just
over a decade ago, implementing sweeping reforms that have freed up the media,
scrapped oppressive laws and given citizens the right to directly pick their
leaders for the first time.
But the
judicial system remains a weak point. The flip-flop case has captured headlines
since the trial began and is one of the most popular trends on social
networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Thousands
have joined in the sandal donation protest.
A batch of
1,000 flip-flops will be given to Sgt. Ahmad Rusdi Harahap, owner of the stolen
shoes, as "compensation," said campaign organizer Budhi Kurniawan.
The boy,
not identified by name because of his age, said he found the dirty old
flip-flops near a garbage bin outside the boarding house. Six months later, he
was summoned by Harahap, who accused him of theft.
"At
first, I didn't understand what he was talking about," he told The
Associated Press. "I'd forgotten all about those sandals."
"He
called a few of his colleagues and they started beating me up, hitting me with
a piece of wood," he said. "I fell into a steep trench. My legs were
bleeding."
The boy
said the officers made him promise to give each a new pair of sandals, but his
father, after seeing the cuts and bruises on his son's body, decided to report
the men to their superiors.
Harahap,
who along with the other two officers is facing charges of violating police
ethics, responded by taking the teenager to criminal court.
It was a
move Andreas Harsono, of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, said was
obviously "excessive" and vindictive.
Ayu Laksmi,
a Balinese artist, brought 10 pairs of sandals to the National Commission for
Child Protection on Tuesday to show her displeasure.
"This
just goes to show, once again, that our laws discriminate," she said.
"It's tough on the poor and weak when it comes to those with money or
power."
The
teenager is not the first minor to face trial over a small criminal offence.
Last year,
a 14-year-old boy was brought to court after spending three weeks in a Jakarta
prison for allegedly stealing a $1.15 cellphone voucher.
Judges
finally dropped the charges, arguing the investigation of the case was
"defective."
- AP
Related Articles:
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First Brig.
Ahmad Rusdi Harahap, left, was given 21 days
in detention by a police tribunal
on Thursday for abusing a
teenager accused of stealing a pair of sandals in
2010.
(Antara Photo)
|
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Nice post mate. I really like those sandals. I haven't been there, but i like the way those people live and their simple way of dealing life. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
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