Kemendikbudristek Asks Polda To Reconsider Student Suspect Status

JAKARTA - Head of the Legal Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) Dian Wahyuni welcomed the apology from students who held the National Education Day (Hardiknas) demonstration on May 3, 2021.

"We hope that the Polda Metro Jaya investigators can consider the benefits of law in handling this case because as we know that some of the suspects are university students and students who are young Indonesians," said Dian, quoted by Antara, Friday, August 6. and labor activists related to the National Education Day (Hardiknas) demonstration. The demonstration was held in front of the Kemendikbudristek Office. The students named as suspects include the Chair of the BEM FH UI, SY and DNU from Bung Karno University.

The action was carried out during the fasting month and the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country. They later issued an apology on June 28.

Dian asked the police to reconsider the status of suspects, because most of the suspects are students who have a long future and need to focus on completing their studies.

The Director of Student Affairs at the University of Indonesia, Tito Latif Indra, said that his party was assisting the settlement of the case at the Regional Police.

"We hope that with very intensive efforts by UI and other universities, this case can be resolved considering that these students are the nation's assets in the future. Where they will replace us, so we ask that they reconsider their suspect status,” said Tito.

One of the students named as suspects, SY hopes that the police will immediately issue a Case Dismissal Order (SP3) for the suspect's case at the protest.

“The determination of this suspect has an impact on us, because our learning is disrupted due to our cellphones being confiscated by the police. Our lectures are being left behind because distance education is now being conducted,” said SY.

SY added that the case gave him many lessons to be learned, namely how to convey opinions in a different way.

Meanwhile, another student, DNU, said that at first they wanted to convey their complaints through peaceful demonstrations and continue to follow strict health protocols. However, due to very dynamic field conditions, miscommunication occurred and resulted in several violations.

According to DNU for three months as suspects, many students lost their right to study.

"During this pandemic, we must comply with the times, namely digitalization, but we apologize that our communication tools were confiscated so that we could not study optimally and even some of our friends really could not learn at all because all the data was there," "he added.