Roy Suryo advises Setnov not to waste energy with memes case

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Members of Commission I of the House of Representatives as well as deputy chairman of Democratic party Roy Suryo said Setya Novanto (Setnov) is wasting his energy by filing police report against a number of social media accounts who spread his memes.

"He still got a lot of things to do. Why don't he use his energy to do something much useful. Let the people express their thoughts and feelings," he said in Jakarta, Saturday.

According to Roy, memes have to be classified as a form of expression guaranteed by the laws. It should be considered as critics and lessons learnt.

Roy believed Setnov's move to sue social media users will be useless. He said, if the memes circulating in many social media were utterly obscure, offensive, and not factual then it could be prosecuted.

"If it contained facts, real, and the photos were not engineered, I hope the experts witnesses later in the hearing will testify to benefit the reported parties," he said.

Roy who is also a telematics expert urged all parties to refrain themselves in filing police reports.

He called on the people to run self introspection and not suing others easily for it could waste their energy.

The power of Setnov

Setnov was named a suspect in e-ID case in July, which incurred an estimated Rp 2.3 million in state losses. He allegedly played a key role in a plan to swindle funds earmarked for the project.

He missed Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) summonses for questioning as a suspect on September 11 and 18 citing illness. But later on September 29, he has succeeded with a pretrial motion and invalid the suspect status on his e-ID graft case.

The netizens respond to the news with creating a lot of memes tagging "the power of Setnov".

Dozens of accounts reported to police

On November 1, National Police received reports from Frederic Yunadi as Setnov lawyer on 32 social media accounts that spread memes related to his client. Of the 32 accounts, nine accounts allegedly insulted Setnov.

The police has detained a netizen, Dyan Kemala Arrizzqi, for spreading meme of Setnov while he was hospitalized with sleep apnea mask.

According to the Head of Sub Directorate of Cyber National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Commissioner Asep Safrudin, Dyan has been named as suspect and snared Article 27 paragraph 3 of Law No. 11/2016 on the Law on ITE.

These are social media accounts reported by Setnov:

15 Twitter accounts:

1. https://twitter.com/YKW1AM

2. https://twitter.com/antox_bondre

3. https://twitter.com/bimasatr061

4. https://twitter.com/iqbalembal

5. https://twitter.com/bagas_satrioo

6. https://twitter.com/tabah110258

7. https://twitter.com/IrwanSuryadi

8. https://twitter.com/Fauzan_vcc

9. https://twitter.com/hidahidaan

10. https://twitter.com/pemudatakhijrah