Online Petition to Revise Child Protection Law Approaches 60,000 Supporters

Jakarta Globe, Bayu Marhaenjati & SP/Natasia Christy, Apr 18, 2014

Almost 60,000 people have signed a petition for changes in the
Child Protection Law. (JG Screen Grab/Change.org)

Jakarta. In the wake of the recent sexual assault of a kindergarten student at Jakarta International School, an online petition seeking for the revision of the country’s Child Protection Law has garnered nearly 60,000 supporters in three days.

The petition at change.org, which was created on Tuesday by a woman named Fellma Panjaitan, asked for a revision of the 2002 Law on Child Protection, which hands convicted sexual assailants a prison sentence of three to 15 years.

Through the petition, Fellma is calling on the House of Representatives to revise the law and hand out harsher punishments for perpetrators of sexual assault, saying the current sentence is far too short to even begin to compensate for the life-long trauma these criminals inflict on their victims.

“Help me [change the law] to so perpetrators will be severely punished. There should be no compromise for sexual predators. We need to participate in building a safe environment for our children,” Fellma wrote on the website.

The appeal has collected more than 59,000 supporters as of 2:30 p.m. local time, and is near the 75,000 needed for the petition to be sent to the House’s Commission VIII, which oversees social affairs and women’s empowerment.

Arief Aziz, founder of Change.org Indonesia, said none of the site’s petitions have garnered this many votes in such a short time.

The case of the alleged sexual assault on a 6-year-old boy by two janitorial staff members at one of the city’s top international schools has gripped the entire country since reports surfaced earlier this week.

Jakarta Police have named two suspects in the case: Agun Iskandar and Virgiawan Amin.

Jakarta Police Spokesman Sr. Cmr. Rikwanto said investigators are still looking into the possible involvement of three other bathroom attendants, including Afrischa Styani, Aswar and Zainal Abidin. Laboratory tests on Aswar and Zainal are currently being processed.

Meanwhile, Lydia Freyani Hawadi, directorate general of early- and non-formal education at the Education and Culture Ministry, said the ministry has formed an investigative team to audit JIS’s kindergarten and its learning process.

Lydia further explained that the school’s early childhood education campus is actually illegal as JIS has only been issued a permit for its elementary and high school levels.

“JIS thought the license to run a kindergarten is equivalent to that of the elementary-school level issued by the Elementary and Secondary Education Directorate. However, these permits are different,“ Lydia said.

Related Articles:

Second Victim Comes Forward in JIS Sex Abuse Scandal

Ministry Closes JIS Kindergarten After Child Rape Allegations

Parents File Lawsuit Against JIS, Ministry
Police Widen Investigation of JIS Janitors
JIS Parent Alleges School Has History of Abuse

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