Jakarta – Retired army general and former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief AM Hendropriyono has been reported to the West Kalimantan Police for allegedly defaming Sultan Hamid II, the designer of Indonesia's national emblem, the Garuda Pancasila.
West Kalimantan Police Spokesperson Sr. Comr. Donny Charles Go said he had issued a summons letter for Hendropriyono.
"We're still investigating the case. We sent him a summons letter, but his lawyer has requested a reschedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Donny said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.
Sultan Hamid II was the seventh sultan of the Pontianak Qadriyah Sultanate in West Kalimantan.
According to historia.id, Hamid was crowned Sultan in October 1945, shortly after Indonesia's Independence Day. A year later, he was appointed a special aide of Dutch Queen Wilhelmina.
In 1950, Hamid won the national emblem competition. After some revision, his design was used as the official national emblem of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RIS) on Feb. 11, 1950, and it is still used until now.
However, shortly after in April 1950, he was arrested for allegedly ordering two Dutch military officers to assassinate three RIS officials. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1953 but was released five years later.
In March 1962, he was arrested again for alleged treason and founding the Vrijwillige Ondergrondsche Corps (VOC), an underground organization that had allegedly planned a coup against President Sukarno.
Hendropriyono was reported by the prince of the Pontianak Sultanate, Syarif Mahmud Alkadrie, who recently proposed that Hamid be officially named a national hero for his contribution to the founding of RIS and the design of the national emblem.
The prince reported Hendropriyono for a recent YouTube video published by the Agama Akal TV channel, where he could be heard calling Hamid a traitor who did not deserve a national hero title.
Hendropriyono also accused Hamid of being unhappy when Indonesia went back to the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) in 1950 after the RIS system collapsed.
"In 1950, the people wanted Indonesia to be a unitary state, but he was not happy. He wanted the country to remain a federal state," Hendropriyono said in the video.
Donny said investigators were planning to question several expert witnesses in the case.
"We asked several expert witnesses to give their opinions on the case, such as Indonesian language experts, history experts and Electronic Information and Transactions [ITE] Law experts," he said. (nal)