The Community Coalition Reports The Ministry Of Defense's #PrabowoGibran Tweet To Bawaslu

The civil society coalition reported to Bawaslu about the tweet of the X Kemhan/ANTARA/Narda Margaretha Sinambela account)

JAKARTA - The Community Coalition for the 2024 Clean Election reported the Ministry of Defense for alleged election violations to the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

The Ministry of Defense was reported for uploads on the official account X @Kemhan_RI which included the hashtag #PrabowoGibran2024 on Sunday (21/1). The proof of receipt of the report to the Indonesian Bawaslu number 035/LP/PP/RI/00.00/I/2024.

Themis Indonesia advocate Ibnu Syamsu Hidayat said the reported party in this case was the Ministry of Defense and the manager of the account, namely the Public Relations Bureau of the Secretariat General of the Ministry of Defense.

"We consider that there are allegations of use of state facilities," said Ibnu as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, January 23.

According to him, the account is an official account of the Ministry of Defense that functions to share public information regarding the Minister of Defense or the Ministry of Defense, not to campaign for one of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Ibnu assessed that the use of the hashtag #PrabowoGibran2024 contradicts Articles 280, 282, and 283 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections. Therefore, the coalition hopes that the Indonesian Bawaslu will immediately follow up on the report.

He also expressed that the apology or clarification made by the Ministry of Defense did not erase the election violations that occurred because it was considered to have actually happened and there was evidence spread.

"In fact, the Palace has also stated that it should conduct an internal evaluation. However, it will not eliminate violations of the 2024 General Election," he said.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) Gina Sabrina assessed that this case was not only an administrative violation, but also had to be seen as a structural violation because the Ministry of Defense structure was still military.

For this reason, Gina requested that the upload be traced, whether there was an order in it.

"Because it is impossible for an adminmedia social then to make a tweet related to the hashtag without any order. We know that the Ministry of Defense is filled by many active military TNI and still has military nuances and there is still an element of command there," explained Gina.

According to Gina, there needs to be a thorough evaluation to ensure whether or not there is a use of state facilities, especially there is an element of command to use state facilities and benefit one of the certain pairs of candidates.

He also suspected that there were indications of an order from the presidential candidate number 2 Prabowo Subianto who was also still the Minister of Defense as the highest command in the ministry.

"Yes, we can see that the Ministry of Defense account is used as a communication media account and Prabowo is a high-ranking official. We can see such indications," he said.

The Community Coalition for the 2024 Clean Election brought a number of pieces of evidence in this report. In addition to the screenshot evidence of the tweet, they also brought a series of studies related to laws and regulations allegedly violated by the Minister of Defense and also civil servants who were responsible for being administrators on the Ministry of Defense's social media accounts.

Hemi denied that this report was aimed at canceling the nomination of pair number 2, but instead tested Bawaslu as one of the election organizers in Indonesia.

They claim this is the third report submitted to Bawaslu regarding alleged election violations. This civil society coalition insists they do not side with any candidate pairs.

Previously, on Monday (22/1), Presidential Special Staff Coordinator Ari Dwipayana reminded all levels of ministries/agencies as well as the TNI-Polri to maintain their neutrality commitment in the midst of the 2024 election competition.

The statement was made by Ari Dwipayana in response to the mistake of the Ministry of Defense's X social media account administration officer who uploaded #PrabowoGibran2024 on the content of the progress of the TNI AU housing development at the Skyhawk Complex, Raden Sadjad Air Base, in Natuna Regency, Natuna Islands, Sunday (21/1).

"We must realize that the current era is an era of election competition, so neutrality must be maintained from all ministries, institutions, including ASN TNI-Polri," he said.

The Prabowo-Gibran hashtag in the upload has been deleted accompanied by an explanation of the error to netizens.