The Difficulty Of Prohibiting Children From Participating In Demonstrations

Demonstration entitled 'Eradicating Mega Corruption Save the Republic of Indonesia' in front of the State Palace, Jakarta. (Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) is monitoring the implementation of the 212 Action which was held in the area of the Arjuna Wiwaha Horse Statue, Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta. The goal is to see the involvement of children in these demonstrations.

The allegation by the Chairman of KPAI Jasra Putra was proven. During the demonstration Jasra saw many school-age children hanging around the demo location. Some of the children Jasra met admitted that they only followed suit and did not know what the demands of the action were.

"Expressing opinions in public is the right of citizens, but to involve children, of course you must pay attention to children's rights. Supposedly, he goes to school but does not go to school, should be able to eat but cannot. location, Friday, February 21.

In fact, this is not the first time that the KPAI has monitored children's involvement in demonstrations. It has been several times even though it only resulted in an appeal without firm action.

For this demonstration, KPAI made contact 2 days before the action to the action coordinator so that children would not be involved. But in reality, there are still children involved there.

According to KPAI, the condition of the crowd in open spaces, with speeches that sometimes forget about emotions, can affect the psychological condition of children. In fact, at times it has a bad impact on children.

However, KPAI cannot directly prevent children from participating in the demonstration. "Our approach is still being violated by the action corps. And today there are repeated 212 actions involving children," he said.

Seeing the limited authority in taking direct action, Jasra handed over law enforcement on child protection to other agencies. KPAI, said Jasra, asked the Chief of Police, Idham Aziz, to immediately take immediate action to prevent children from the risk of fatigue, hunger, exposure to violence arising from demonstration activities.

In addition, he said, there were many rules attached to schools to prevent them from skipping school and abuse children in demonstrations. Bearing in mind, Article 15 letter of Law 35 of 2014 concerning Child Protection states that children must be protected from the abuse of political activities.

"We hope that the local government, including the police, must have the same SOP, because once again, many children's rights have been violated. We must evacuate them from the demonstration situation, let alone demands, it could also be political demands," said Jasra.

He said, under Law 23 of 2002 there is a criminal threat that can be obtained if a child is involved in a demonstration. The sentence is five years in prison, but that has been revised.

He did not want children to be involved in actions like this, because he thought they did not understand the impact of demonstrations. He regretted that the police could not provide child protection for this action. In fact, according to him, the police succeeded in securing them by preventing children from being involved in demonstrations at the DPR some time ago.

"Indeed, this requires control from many parties and other solutions. The state must not be defeated by the absence of sanctions," he said.

Separately confirmed, Head of Public Relations of Polda Metro Jaya, Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus, stated that his party routinely made appeals to demo participants who made permits not to include children.

"The police have carried out a procedure in the form of an appeal to the organizers of the action when they are carrying out the permit application process," said Yusri when contacted by VOI.

However, the fact is that the organizers of the action did not pay attention to the appeal. Until now, there are still demonstrations that have included children.

For information, the mass of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), GNPF Ulama, and Alumni of the Brotherhood (PA) 212 will hold a demonstration entitled 'Eradicating Mega Corruption Save the Republic of Indonesia' in front of the State Palace, Jakarta.

At the action that will take place, Friday, February 21, at around 13.30 WIB, the masses will give speeches about the incomplete case of the alleged corruption case of PT Asuransi Jiwasraya and the bribery that ensnared Harun Masiku and Wahyu Setiawan.