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Bagus,
my driver, recently arrived at my house totally distraught. He had just
been told that his 16-year-old son, Amir, had been involved in a traffic
accident.
Amir was
walking to school that morning, as usual, when suddenly a speeding car
careened down the road and drove straight into him. It turned out the
driver was another 16-year-old. Naturally, he did not have a driver’s
license. Amir was badly shaken but, amazingly, only his foot was injured.
Things were bad enough, but they could certainly have been a lot worse.
The police
had arrived on the scene. They took the terrified teenage driver to the
police station, slapped him around a bit and locked him up. The driver’s
parents were notified and rushed back from Bandung. They went first to
the hospital and assured Bagus they would take care of all the medical
expenses until Amir had fully recovered.
However, they
begged Bagus not to take the matter any further, because, as the mother
tearfully said, “Please take pity on Rendi [her son, not his real name],
I don’t have the heart to see him jailed and have his schooling
disrupted”. Driving without a driver’s license and causing an accident
could have landed Rendi at least eight months in the slammer.
“Pity your
son? What about my son?” Bagus replied. “He could have been killed thanks
to your son’s reckless driving. What’s the difference between your son
and mine?” The mother could say nothing, because deep down inside she
knew the truth of what Bagus had said. But since the injury was not as
serious as it might have been, Bagus took the police’s advice to settle
and did not press further charges.
However, the
family of the victims of another case of reckless driving that took place
on Jan. 1 this year, causing two deaths and badly injuring three, did not
settle. Instead, they had to resign themselves to the extremely lenient
sentence given to the 22-year-old driver who, according to law, faced up
to five years
imprisonment.
The young man
in question was Rasyid Rajasa, the son of Coordinating Economic Minister
Hatta Rajasa. Known as “Mr. Silver Hair”, Rajasa Sr. is an in-law of
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (the President’s youngest son, Eddie
“Ibas” Bhaskoro, is married to Rajasa’s daughter, Aliya). Rajasa Sr. is
also likely to be the presidential candidate of the National Mandate Party
(PAN) in 2014.
Perhaps that
was why the police did not slap Rasyid around as they did with Rendi, or
even detain him. In fact, Rasyid seems to have received the kid glove
treatment. Instead of being jailed, he received a sentence of six months
probation and a Rp 12 million (US$1,236) fine. Basically, he walked away
scot-free — just as long as he does not reoffend during his probation
period.
In justifying
their decision, the judges noted that Rasyid had taken responsibility for
his actions (by helping the victims, visiting them, giving them monetary
compensation, replacing the damaged car, etc). In his defense statement,
Rasyid also told the judges he was pursuing his studies in London and, as
Rendi’s mother had pleaded in the defense of her son, a prison sentence
would have disrupted his studies and his future (yeeesss … but isn’t that
is one of the purposes of jail?).
And what
about the two victims of Rasyid’s reckless driving — Harun (57) and M.
Raihan (15 months)? Their lives were more than simply disrupted: they
were terminated. You do not have much future if you are stone-cold dead!
Are the values of their lives less than that of Rasyid’s? It depends who
you are asking, I guess.
When the
President heard about the accident, he expressed his keprihatinan
(sympathy and concern) toward the musibah (disaster, tragedy) that had
befallen Rasyid. I hope he also expressed his keprihatinan toward the
family of the deceased too. After all, he is the President of all
Indonesians, not just of the oligarchy, isn’t he?
Indonesia
prides itself on being the third-largest democracy in the world and a
state governed by the rule of law. Oh really? You could have fooled me!
No wonder there is now a petition on change.org “to treat, put on trial
and punish Rasyid Rajasa in accordance with the law”.
I remember
another Hatta, Mohammad Hatta, one of the founding fathers of the
republic. He believed in the notion of daulat rakyat (people’s
sovereignty) for Indonesia. Sadly, the way things are now, it looks more
like it is daulat tuanku (the divine right of kings) that applies, with
our rulers thinking l’etat c’est moi (the state is me).
Rajasa Sr.
has presidential ambitions. But can the presidential promise to uphold
the supremacy of the law be credible if a family member who broke the law
goes virtually unpunished? Perhaps Rajasa Sr. should follow the example
of Yudhoyono, who did not stop another of his in-laws, former deputy
governor of Bank Indonesia Aulia Pohan, from serving 4.5 years for
corruption in 2009. Indeed, this may have been one of the reasons why
Yudhoyono won a second term.
So it looks
to me like Rajasa has to choose between either his silver-spoon-in-mouth
son, or his presidential bid. You cannot have it both ways, Mr. Silver
Hair. After all, the electorate is not stupid. It knows that a license to
rule does not mean a license to kill. ●
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