REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner, Sitti Hikmawatty reminded of criminal threats over the involvement of children in political activities. Her statement came after the report in the case of children’s involvement in political activity.

“KPAI will coordinate with Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) related to legal violation that contains criminal elements in political activity,” Sitty said in a written statement on Friday (Oct 19).

Sitti said children should not be involved in politics and it is in line with Article 15 Law No. 35/2014 on Child Protection. The article said that children have the right to be protected from abuse in political activities.

Also read: TKN reports viral video of scout hailing '2019GantiPresiden'

Although the article has no criminal threat, but Sitti said the criminal threat is in Law No. 7/2017 on Election. The law also contains prohibition on using education facilities and other articles which also state that citizens who do not have the right to vote are prohibited from being involved in the campaign.

Sitti explained the criminal threat in Child Protection Law is not strictly mentioned. However, in Article 76 H is said if everyone is prohibited from recruiting or manipulating children for military and or other purposes and leaving children without life protection.

She added similar rule is also stated in Article 87 that said people who violated the provisions referred to in article 76 H shall be sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment and or a maximum fine of Rp 100 million. Although, she admitted that in this article review, a number of cases are allowed to carry out criminal threats, which certainly needed a deeper study.

Earlier, KPAI member Erlinda said exploitation against children for political purposes could be subject to a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. She stressed that related to the legal sanction about this, KPAI has made a memorandum of understanding with General Election Commission (KPU) and Bawaslu as election organizers.

According to Erlinda, the exploitation of children in election activities is feared to disturb children's psychology. She said that this could lead to fights between students in the schools due to the emergence of choices. Moreover, she continued, the activity also has a bad impact for education.

Earlier, incumbent President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) - KH Ma’ruf Amin national campaign team (TKN) through its Directorate of Law and Advocacy reported a viral video of children with scout uniforms who called for ‘2019 change president’ to Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI). The report was filed on Thursday (Oct 18).

TKN Director of Law and Advocacy Ade Irfan Pulungan asked KPAI to immediately investigate teachers and schools that involved their underage students in political activities. TKN Jokowi-Ma'ruf also reported the incident at 87 Senior High School in Jakarta.

One of the teachers, namely Nelty Khairiyah was known to have given anti-Jokowi doctrine to her students. “We know it following complaint from a parent in social media, so we don’t want this incident to happen again,” Ade said.

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