- December 26, 2019
- Posted by: Muhamad Rosyid Jazuli
- Category: Democracy, News
Indonesia’s State Civil Servants (ASN) are prohibited from spreading hate speech statements including through social media. moreover, civil servants are also prohibited from commenting about political support through social media.
As reported by Detikcom, the policy was stated in the Minister of Administrative Reform and Bureaucracy Reform (MenPAN-RB) Letter regarding the implementation of neutrality for ASN and the holding of 2018 simultaneous local elections, legislative elections, and the 2019 presidential and vice-presidential elections.
Responding to this, Paramadina Public Policy Institute (PPPI)’s Managing Director Ahmad Khoirul Umam said the government must have technical rules in handling an opinion posed by ASNs. If the criticism conveyed is still in the context of democracy, then the government cannot act against them on behalf of bureaucratic reform.
“The technical rules that become the corridors of these ASNs’ political freedom must be clear and still guarantee to strengthen democratic values, not precisely suppress them blindly in the name of bureaucratic reform,” Umam told Detikcom the end of last year (10/15/2019).
In addition, he said, the government must provide different policies for structural and functional civil servants (lecturers, researchers, doctors, etc.).
“It needs to be distinguished between structural civil servants in state institutions, and functional like lecturers, researchers, and widyaiswara. The rules prohibiting civil servants from commenting and even giving likes to political material are more proportionally given to structural civil servants because of their function as executors of political decisions,” said Umam.
Thus, according to him the government cannot prohibit freedom of speech of functional civil servants.
“For functional civil servants like lecturers and researchers, the rules forbidding ASNs’ from commenting will not be appropriate. Lecturers and researchers must still be given freedom of expression and express their opinions considering they are part of the elements of civil society which are a significant pillar in democracy,” he explained.
The policy also stipulates that those ASNs will likely be questioned if daring to respond some hate speech-related posts. For example, when the ASNs give likes or cynically comments on social media, they can be in a serious trouble. According to Umam, the regulation is an excessive threat.
“If the context is like that, then the threat tends to be excessive. The government should not be paranoid about the criticism coming from campuses, researchers and lecturers,” said Umam. (*)
