Polemics Of The Criminal Code Law On Social Media, Monitoring Netray Isdominated By Negative Sentiments

A number of activists from a combination of elements of society have rallied against the ratification of the RKUHP in front of the DPR RI Building, December 5, 2022. (Between)

Twitter activist Dandhy Laksono spoke out loud on social media after the Indonesian House of Representatives ratified the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) on December 6. There is a sense of surprise, why every law product issued by the DPR always reaps polemic.

From the Job Creation Law, the Minerba Law, the KPK Law, the Health Bill, the IKN Law, until now the RKUHP have all caused problems. But the Police Law is left alone. Maybe it's time for public pressure not only to the bill, but the political system that makes the DPR and Palace filled with politicians whose products are this chaotic," Dandhy tweeted on December 6, 2022.

People who attack the honor or dignity of the President and Vice President can be punished. Likewise, acts of insult to the legitimate government resulting in riots in society have the potential to be sentenced to imprisonment for a maximum of 3 years.

On the other hand, the minimum sentence of corruptors was even reduced. Article 603 of the Criminal Code states, "Every person who unlawfully commits acts of enriching himself, another person, or corporation that harms state finances or the country's economy shall be punished with life imprisonment or imprisonment for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 20 years and a minimum fine of category II and a maximum of category VI."

In fact, the sentence for corruptors was previously a minimum of 4 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 200 million in Law Number 20/2001.

And in a country that is pretending to be Pancasila and claimed to be the first Criminal Code after the Dutch colonialism, the minimum sentence for corruptors has been reduced from 4 years to only 2 years. Munafik. Hipokrit," tweeted Dandhy on the @Dandhy_Laksono account on December 7, 2022.

In addition, Dandhy also highlighted Article 188 paragraph 1 regarding the prohibition of spreading understanding other than Pancasila.

One of the articles in the new Criminal Code is about the prohibition of spreading ideas other than Pancasila. But only mention COMMUNISM. Don't mention CAPITALISM. Ideology which is also against Pancasila, but adhered to, practiced, worshiped and became the economic foundation of the Republic of Indonesia. Munafik. Hipokrit," Dandhy continued his tweet.

Not only Dandhy, another Twitter activist, Evi Mariani also highlighted the controversial article of the Criminal Code, especially Article 263 concerning fake news. According to him, this article appears arbitrary, what indicators of a news can be called fake news. There is no explanation in the Criminal Code Law.

The article on fake news at the Criminal Code is only a concern for journalists. Of course, bujer will say: That's why it's not difficult to make fake news, that's all. The problem is, it is a lie that determines the news is a lie, or who is it suspected to be a lie? My next tweet is to prove its definition can be arbitrary," Evi tweeted on the @evimsofian account on December 6, 2022.

Dandhy and Evi's tweets on December 6 were included in Netray's monitoring as a negative trend in the topic of ratifying the Criminal Code Bill.

Using the keywords of the RKUHP, KUHP, and RUUKUHP during the period 6-7 December 2022, Netray found 26.8 thousand tweets out of 11,249 accounts discussing the topic of ratification of the Criminal Code Bill. The conversation was dominated by negative sentiment with 11,758 tweets.

Only 4,966 tweets have positive intentions. Among other things, what was tweeted by Muklis on the @tvindonesia account wkwk, did you know that the RKUHP had been ratified? Gabole again criticized the government, dear. Great government, the government is very meritorious to the public, the government doesn't think about its own pockets, the government is the best, I really love the government."

Likewise on Instagram, the topic of ratification of the Criminal Code Bill also received the attention of Instagram activists. From the results of Netray monitoring using the same keywords, it was found that 893 uploads received reactions from netizens as many as 281.3 thousand times. reaches approximately 37.2 million accounts monitored to discuss the topic.

During the monitoring period 6-7 December 2022, 3 of the most popular accounts appeared to be negative. The first account, @faksanyagoogle, highlighted Article 331 concerning delinquency and Article 265 concerning people who disturb public peace such as noisy neighbors at night to give a sign of a false prohibition. If they violate the two articles, they will be fined category II or as much as Rp. 10 million.

The second account that has received many comments and likes from Instagram activists comes from the media @sekcom which emphasizes the news in article 473 regarding acts of rape. This upload emphasizes that oral sex committed by coercion and violence can be subject to criminal offenses and imprisoned for 12 years.

The third most popular account, @ahquote, which features the title RKHUP: Dating Can Be Prisoned'. In the caption, this account emphasizes Article 417 concerning adultery that people who have intercourse with a person who is not their husband or wife are convicted of adultery with a maximum imprisonment of 1 year.

Meanwhile, quite a lot of personal accounts have been impressed by Instagram activists coming from the @kendraparamita account. He conveyed criticism of the Criminal Code through an illustration of the Criminal Code Bill with a straightforward caption Tancap gas in the Middle of Criticism'.

The US Ambassador to Indonesia, Sung Y Kim also criticized the Criminal Code as posted by the @pinterpolitical and @totalpolitical accounts. (Netray screenshot)

Sociologist Ariel Heryanto through his Instagram account @arielheryanto also expressed his satire to the Indonesian government as stated in the picture that reads If you don't like RKUHP, please sue to the Supreme Court. No need to demo. If you miss the colonial era, just make a VOC again. You don't have to hijack reforms, Netray wrote in his report on December 13.

Not only Indonesian citizens, the United States Ambassador to Indonesia, Sung Y Kim also criticized that the Criminal Code could have a negative impact on Indonesia's investment climate because it takes too much care of the private sphere of its citizens in the @pinterpolitical account.

The US Ambassador also asked Indonesia to respect the LGBT. This is what makes Anwar Abbas (Vice Chairman of MUI) react strongly, Sung Y Kim's opinion sounds very tendentious and threatening because in a statement it appears that the US government wants to force and urge the Indonesian people to tolerate LGBT practices and hang out. As shown by the @totalpolitical account with 39 comments and 847 likes.

With information technology like today, the existence of this law is considered to threaten the freedom of expression of the Indonesian people to foreign nationals. This law is considered to endanger democracy and make the Indonesian government authoritarian," Netray closed its report.