Ismira Lutfia – The Tangerang Prosecutor's Office, which has been roundly condemned for its handling of the Prita Mulysari case, has again been thrust into the public spotlight with its decision to charge 10 boys aged between 8 and 11 with gambling.
The public outrage over the office's decision to charge Prita with defaming Omni International Hospital in an e-mail message criticizing the facility's treatment resulted in Attorney General Hendarman Supandji rebuking the district prosecutors for "unprofessional conduct" and ordering an investigation into their actions.
The furor cost Dondy Soedirman his job as head of the Tangerang office. He was removed from Banten and demoted, though the AGO never formally linked the steps to the decision to file charges against Prita.
In the latest case, prosecutors formally indicted a group of shoe-shine boys for gambling after police arrested them at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport while placing Rp 1,000 (10 cent) bets on the outcome of coin tosses in late May.
Seto Mulyadi, the chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), said lodging criminal charges against juveniles was unacceptable. "This is an example of failing to understand the Child Protection Law and child psychology."
Seto said the entire incident should simply be seen as a group of children at play. "The law enforcers should see it from the children's perspective and that their context was just to play. They were not gambling."
He said the boys were victims of government policies that were unfriendly to children, such as the failure to provide a sufficient number of playgrounds. He said taking legal action against the boys would criminalize them, and that the police, who initially took the children into custody, should have consulted Komnas PA.
AGO spokesman Jasman Panjaitan said the decision to charge the boys was in accordance with the 1997 Juvenile Court Law. "The law stipulates that children can be tried in a juvenile court if they are between 8 and 18 years old," Jasman said.
However, Adnan Pandupraja, a member of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), said law enforcement officials needed to be more flexible when dealing with juveniles, adding that the case would set a bad precedent for future cases.
He also said the police should view themselves as public protectors when dealing with children.
"Don't they have such values [to protect] anymore?" Adnan said. "They are not merely law enforcers but they are also the protectors of society."
Estu Rakhmi Fanani, director of the Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Apik), said law enforcers needed to view every step of the legal process from the perspective of children when dealing with juveniles. "They should be regarded as just children, not as criminals," Estu said.
She added that it was important that law enforcers, when dealing with juveniles, saw the legal process as there to educate children and society at large about the need to create a child-friendly environment for young people to grow and develop.