Bung Imam

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'Beta Mo Tidur Deng Bapa'

Ilustrasi oleh Gery Paulandhika Bagaimana ekspresi politik secara damai didakwa hukuman penjara dan memisahkan anggota keluarga. A WAL JANUARI 2016 saya mengajak istri dan anak saya—umur belum genap dua tahun—untuk berkunjung ke lokasi penjara di Pulau Nusa Kambangan, selatan Jawa Tengah. Kami menengok sejumlah tahanan politik (tapol) dari Maluku. Kami datang untuk menjenguk kenyataan bahwa di negeri ini ada sejumlah orang Indonesia dihukum 15 sampai 20 tahun penjara karena beda pandangan politik. Pada Juni 2007, mereka menari cakalele —tarian perang tradisional—dan membentangkan bendera “Benang Raja”, simbol Republik Maluku Selatan, di depan Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ketika peringatan Hari Keluarga Nasional di Ambon, ibukota provinsi Maluku. Ini menimbulkan amarah Yudhoyono. Mereka ditangkap dan disiksa . Total ada 68 orang dipenjara. Pada 2009, sebagian tahanan politik ini dijauhkan dari keluarga mereka di Ambon dan dipindahkan ke beberapa penjara di Pulau Jawa termasu

RMS Political Prisoners Reunite With Families After 7-Year Wait

Nusakambangan. In early January, I brought my wife and toddler daughter along on a visit to the Nusakambangan prison. We went there to visit Republik Maluku Selatan — South Maluku Republic, or RMS — political prisoners. I wanted to show them that in this country many can still be jailed for holding different political views, some for as long as 15 to 20 years. In June 2007 in Ambon, these RMS political prisoners danced the Cakalele and raised the RMS flag in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a seemingly innocuous ceremony to celebrate National Family Day. Yudhoyono was incensed. The dancers were arrested, and then tortured. In total, 68 people were arrested after the incident and sentenced for up to 20 years in prison. Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story. In 2009, the political prisoners were forcibly moved, away from their family in Ambon, to various prisons across Java including Nusakambangan. I was delighted that my daughter Kembang b

Pak George

Penampilannya ngaktivis banget. Kaos putih berkerah, berselempang tais dan berambut acak-acakan. Saat itu awal 2007. Suaranya masih keras. Ia datang sebagai peserta diskusi sama seperti saya dan mendengarkan penuturan Galuh Wandita , almarhum Agustinho de Vasconselos dan Patrick Walsh yang saat itu meluncurkan laporan kejahatan kemanusiaan di Timor Leste selama pendudukan Indonesia di Perpusnas, Matraman. Laporan itu berjudul Chega! artinya cukup, berisi testimoni ribuan korban dan saksi mata kejahatan kemanusiaan selama 25 tahun. Patrick, Agustinho dan Galuh mengajak audien memikirkan tindaklanjut laporan tersebut. Sesi tanya jawab dibuka. Pak George berdiri. Ia menandaskan kejahatan kemanusiaan di Timor Leste hanya bisa terjadi karena tak ada tentara yang dihukum atas kejahatan 65. Impunitas ini bikin siklus kejahatan kemanusiaan diulang-ulang. Di Timor Leste, di Aceh, di Poso dan di Papua. Dia menegaskan pentingnya mengadili penjahat 65 jika ingin kejahatan-keja

Kau Sesat Maka Kau Pasti Salah!

Apa jadinya kalau semua profesi membela agamanya? Tukang pos Islam tak mau mengantar surat orang Kristen karena ia beda agama. Dokter Kristen tak mau mengobati pasien Muslim karena ia beda agama. Wartawan Sunni tak mau menyuarakan orang Syi’ah yang didzalimi karena ia beda keyakinan atau seorang Hakim Sunni tak memberi keadilan pada korban Syi’ah yang dibakar rumah dan sekolahnya dan diusir dari tempat tinggalnya, serta dibunuh pengikutnya karena keyakinan berbeda. Kita patut was-was karena bangunan kebangsaan kita terancam. Ia akan kembali ke zaman siapa kuat ia menang. Yang mayoritas membantai yang minoritas. Bukankah bukan begitu tujuan kita bernegara? Negara wajib melindungi semua warganya. Memberi keadilan. Wartawan dan hakim yang didikte agamanya bukan rekaan, ia benar-benar terjadi di kasus pemimpin Syi’ah Tajul Muluk, Sampang Madura. Di mana wartawan tak menjalankan fungsinya dengan independen, menjadi anjing penjaga penguasa yang dzalim, menyuarakan korban dengan mengumpul

Truth or Consequence

By Imam Shofwan She is said to have been breathtakingly beautiful, and even now, decades later, there are traces of what had made her so attractive to men: an oval face, cleft chin, eyes that slant upwards just so, and hair that is thick and wavy. When she was younger, her skin was also a smooth golden brown, her body slim yet full in the right places. These days there are wrinkles around her eyes, but it is the weariness in her face and the slump in her shoulders that betray her age of 50 years – and what she has been through. Then again Lalerek Mutin, a small community east of the Timor Leste capital, isn’t known as “widow’s village” for nothing. “My husband was kidnapped and killed by three soldiers when I was four months pregnant,” she tells me. “My child died of hunger. Now I raise my two kids from two of the three soldiers who committed sexual acts on me.” I had picked her out at random from among the 8,000 witnesses who testified before

Shariah Advocates Must Put Into Practice Its History of Tolerance

Imam Shofwan In August 2002, a number of Islam-based political parties demanded the Jakarta Charter be included in the Constitution, which would mean that Muslims in Indonesia would have the obligation to live according to the prescriptions of Shariah law. The effort was supported by a large number of — mainly hard-line — Islamic organizations, but nevertheless failed to pass through the House of Representatives, in part due to opposition from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the — also Islam-based — National Awakening Party (PKB). The Islamists had to change strategy. In 2004 a new law on regional autonomy gave them the opportunity they had been hoping for. They set about implementing “Shariah from below” by advocating across the archipelago local Shariah laws, which often included rules such as women being required to wear the hijab, and couples wanting to marry needing to read the Koran. Islamic groups have long argued that their brand of “Shariah from