Japanese Slippers And Questions Of Injustice In Indonesia

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya JAKARTA, Jan 7 (Bernama) -- The Palu district court in Central Celebes yesterday tried a 15-year-old student, referred to as only A.A.L., for stealing a pair of sandals owned by a policeman, but public support for the boy continued to pour. They contributed thousands of sandals, mostly Japanese slippers, both old and new, with some sent to the Indonesian police chief with a message that he should protect Indonesian children. The public's reaction not only indicated moral sympathy for A.A.L. but was also an insinuation, which made the Japanese slippers a new symbol of injustice in Indonesia. Although the court in its decision ordered A.A.L. to be returned to his family for rehabilitation, the Indonesian public could not accept the guilty verdict because the prosecution could not come up with any proof. Indonesian Children's Protection Commission secretary (KPAI) M. Ikhsan opined that the verdict was strange because the trial did not prove the boy's guilt. The teenager did not steal but picked up the sandals from the roadside and that the sandals did not belong to policeman Ahmad Rusdi Harahap because the brand of the sandals used as exhibits differed from that owned by the policeman, he told local media. KPAI reported the judge who handled the case for evaluation to the Judicial Commission while A.A.L.'s counsel appealed against the verdict. Meanwhile, Constitutional Court president Mohammad Mahfud MD, stated that the court's decision on A.A.L.'s case was apt as an example of upholding of the law without discrimination. Another incident which incurred the ire of the public was the assault on A.A.L. by police when he was interrogated and forced to confess to the theft. Ahmad Rusdi, who was found guilty of assault and abuse by the police disciplinary board, was only disciplined for breaching ethics. The public have now demanded that Ahmad Rusdi be charged in court for the crime of assaulting a child. -- BERNAMA