Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court struck down on Tuesday articles in the Criminal Code banning speeches and writing expressing hostility toward or inciting hatred of the government, calling the centuries-old rulings detrimental to democracy.
The verdict arrived after the court also scrapped in December three articles that ruled burning pictures of the president and vice president and mocking them in public were crimes.
The code was introduced during the Dutch colonial period and was often used by former president Soeharto to stifle critics. These articles were also used to silence and imprison activists by both the previous and current administrations.
"Articles 154 and 155 in the Criminal Code run against the 1945 Constitution's Article 28 (on freedom of speech), thus they no longer have legality," said court chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie. The articles carried jail terms of up to seven years.
The court said the two articles were irrational because a citizen of an independent and sovereign nation could not possibly be hostile to the government, except in the case of treason. "The code already has specified articles on treason," said Court judge H.A.S. Natabaya.
Furthermore, the court said the Dutch justice authorities were also against the inclusion of such articles in their criminal code.
It said the Dutch government considered the articles to be against the freedom of expression and thus were applicable only in a colonized area. "History has shown that these articles were intended to be used against independence fighters during the Dutch colonization," said Natabaya.
The judicial review of the two articles was filed by Panji Utomo, a rights activist from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Panji was sentenced to three months in jail by the Aceh District Court for expressing hatred and insulting the government at a rally at the office of the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency last year.
"This is a victory for friends who have been struggling to create freedom of speech. This (verdict) defines democracy," he said.
The court, however, did not issue any verdicts on articles 107, 160, 161, 207 and 208, for which reviews were also filed. It said these articles were irrelevant to the points of constitutional rights damages that Panji had cited in his suit.
But the latest amendment of the Criminal Code drafted by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry still contains articles criminalizing such actions.
The ministry's director general of human rights Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said in a previous hearing of the trial that such articles could indeed be interpreted in multiple ways and that the government was considering revamping them.