PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Suspects Police Summons Ordered From Above

By Nicholas Ryan Aditya, Achmad Nasrudin Yahya for Kompas.com, June 3, 2024

JAKARTA, Kompas.com – Secretary General of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Hasto Kristiyanto, suspects that there is an orchestrated direction behind his summons to attend Jakarta District Police Headquarters on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

According to Hasto, the purpose of the direction is none other than to criminalize him. However, Hasto did not elaborate on who might be behind the alleged direction.

“Yes, there was definitely an order. There must have been an order to summons me because of my critical stance on allegations of electoral fraud,” said Hasto during an interview at the University of Indonesia (UI) in the West Java city of Depok on Monday, June 3, 2024.

Hasto has been summoned to Jakarta District Police Headquarters in connection with his interview on a television station during which he revealed allegations of fraud during the 2024 presidential elections. Hasto expressed surprise at receiving the summons, as he believed he was simply speaking the truth about the 2024 elections.

According to Hasto, allegations of electoral fraud have also been voiced in various academic studies and field study findings. “There have been instances of village heads being intimidated, regional heads being intimidated, and the press being intimidated. Then when a community complaint is voiced the legal process moves swiftly,” he said.

Comparing this to other cases such as corruption, illegal mining, and banking, Hasto remarked that these cases seem to be processed slowly, or even ignored by the police. “We, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, have a backlog of issues that remains unresolved. When one of our offices was hit by a Molotov cocktail, or when a laptop containing strategic information was stolen, those cases were not acted on,” he said. “Meanwhile, the people raising issues about improving the quality of democracy are the ones being processed,” continued the politician originally from the city of Yogyakarta.

When asked if he would attend Jakarta police headquarters alone or be accompanied, Hasto disclosed that PDI-P’s task force and branch administrators did want to accompany him.

However, he has asked them not to attend and to remain calm. “Amid the darkness hanging over the country’s democracy, and the darkness hanging over those in power, we have to fight for the truth within the law,” said Hasto. “So I urge everyone not to come. I will go accompanied by legal advisors,” he concluded.

According to information received by the media, Hasto has been summoned by police for questioning in relation to allegations of incitement and/or disseminating electronic information and/or documents containing false news causing public unrest, as provided for by Articles 160 and 28 paragraph (3) of the Criminal Code and Article 45A paragraph (3) of Law No. 1/2024 Concerning the Second Amendment to Law No. 11/2008 On Information and Electronic Transactions.

The incidents in question allegedly took place on March 16, 2024, and March 19, 2024, in front of Indonesia’s House of Representatives building at Jenderal Gatot Subroto Street and in the Central Jakarta suburb of Gambir. The complainants are Hendra and Bayu Setiawan, who lodged complaints at the Integrated Police Service Center (SPKT) of Jakarta’s District Police Headquarters.

This article is based on https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/06/03/20094671/hasto-curiga-ada-orderan-di-balik-pemanggilannya-ke-polda-metro-jaya.