Academics: Indonesia Doesn't Need To Respond To Allegations America Cares About Protecting Privacy Violations

A resident shows the PeduliLindung application on his cellphone. (ANTARA/Zabur Karuru)

JAKARTA - Professor of International Law at the University of Indonesia, Hikmahanto Juwana, believes that Indonesia does not need to respond to accusations by the United States Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PeduliLindung application violating privacy.

"Indonesia needs to teach the US a lesson by ignoring the US accusations regarding the PeduliLindung application," said Hikmahanto Juwana in a statement in Jakarta, Wednesday 27 April.

According to him, it is time for Indonesia not to follow what big countries, including the US, want in exercising its sovereignty.

Hikmahanto, who is also Chancellor of Jenderal A Yani University, said that Indonesia was assessed by the US government as having the potential to violate human rights in the use of the PeduliLindung application.

He said the US' unilateral accusation was based on a report by an Indonesian NGO without clearly mentioning the name of the NGO. Indonesia was not given the opportunity to defend itself before the report was released.

He said the action was US behavior in various parts of the world. According to him, the United States seems to be the world's judge who determines whether a country's policies are right or wrong, even though the basis for doing so is very dubious, said Hikmahanto.

The accusation of human rights violations in Indonesia is the same as the US accusation that Russia violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"The Indonesian government, starting from the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Health has objected. Even the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs has stated that in the United States there have been human rights violations," he said.

He said that what was conveyed by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs was very accurate. The US seems to have the authority to declare other countries wrong, but not when it is done by itself.

“One of the proofs is when the US is fighting terror. The US government intercepts the conversations of all citizens in the US. This policy is certainly justified for the sake of US security," he said.