The Government Needs To Hear Public Aspirations In The Shooting Case Of FPI Laskar

Metro Jaya Police Chief, Inspector General Fadil Imran, shows a gun belonging to the FPI special army guarding Rizieq Shihab (Rizky Adytia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Bareskrim Polri started the process of examining witnesses related to the shooting of six special laskar for Rizieq Shihab's bodyguard. The investigation was carried out after the case was withdrawn from Polda Metro Jaya.

The head of the National Police's Criminal Investigation Unit, Komjen Pol Listyo Sigit Prabowo, said that the takeover of this case was so that the investigation of the shooting of the six laskar cases could be completed objectively.

"To maintain the professionalism and transparency of the investigation, a scientific crime investigation was carried out by involving the internal supervisor of the Propam Police Headquarters," said Sigit, Thursday, December 10.

However, the takeover of the case from Polda Metro to Bareskrim Polri did not result in the victim's family and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). They asked the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to conduct a fact-finding on the case.

In addition, they also asked the Indonesian Parliament to help oversee the disclosure of the murder case of six FPI laskar. This is because there are two different narratives related to the chronology of the shootings that took place at the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road.

Polda Metro Jaya said the shooting was carried out as self-defense because the FPI troops also had firearms. However, FPI denied and emphasized that their ranks were not equipped with any weapons.

"I beg you, if it's like this, don't be slandered again. It is clear that all these (shootings) were not fabricated, this was massacre and torture," said Umar, one of the soldiers who was shot at the public hearing at the DPR RI Building.

In this regard, the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) also stated that it was ready to provide protection to victims and witnesses who knew about the shooting incident.

"Victims and witnesses who have important information and are worried about threats, LPSK is ready to provide protection. Security factors and freedom from threats are important for them to provide information," said Deputy Chairman of LPSK Edwin Partogi Pasaribu.

The government must restore public trust

Two different narratives regarding the chronology of the shootings and the encouragement of forming an independent team outside the police to investigate this case were caused by a crisis of public trust, particularly FPI in the government in protecting citizens' rights.

Seeing this, Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia Usman Hamid said that the sentiment of lack of trust in the government is the right of citizens.

Usman said, the government needs to make efforts to restore this trust. "The government must listen to the aspirations of the people in the field of law enforcement and human rights," he said VOI.

This is because, so far, many parties think that the current government is ignoring legal protection because it has never resolved past human rights violations and places too much importance on infrastructure.

"Must and real action in law enforcement which is now in decline. Don't just think about physical infrastructure. Justice is very important," he added.