Murals Mysteriously Cropping Up in Indonesia Puzzle Authorities

One has the internet error “404: not found” painted over the eyes of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Two more say “God, I’m Hungry” and “The Real Plague is Hunger.”

These are all murals and graffiti slogans that have been covered up in recent weeks in what activists say is the latest attack on freedom of expression in the archipelago. 

Observers say the cryptic street art is appearing in reaction to the government’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. Jokowi, as the president is more commonly referred to, has presided over the virus response, including a halting vaccination program in which less than 12 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million people have received two doses.

The coronavirus has killed more than 128,000 Indonesians, infected more than 4 million, and taken an enormous toll on the economy, with 6.4 million people in the country losing their jobs in 2020.

“It indicates that the government is becoming more and more anti-critic, whether it’s in the form of murals, tweets or T-shirt design,” Nenden Sekar Arum, who works on freedom of expression for the rights group SAFENet, told VICE World News.

Arum was referring to a designer whose apology for promoting an internet error message T-shirt was posted to an account of someone who appears to work for a cybercrime patrol division. A tweet from the account adds an ominous message: “We keep eyes on you.”

Police had been looking for those responsible for the main mural featuring Jokowi, which was spotted some 16 miles from the capital Jakarta, on the grounds that it insulted him as a symbol of the state. But the culprit has yet to be found. Along with the internet error message covering the leader’s eyes, the mural also showed a serious-looking Jokowi sandwiched between red graffiti scrawl.

But human rights advocates say the murals were within the rights of Indonesian citizens to voice dissent. Shaleh Al Ghifari, who works at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, told local media that provisions penalizing defamation of the Indonesian president have been removed from the country’s criminal code.

An artist involved in one of the hunger murals told local media they were approached by authorities, and described the encounter as “quite intimidating.”

“We never expected the police would come after us,” Deka Sike, one of the artists, told Tempo. Sike said it took four hours for 15 artists to finish the 12-meter-long graffiti about hunger. 

“This is our way of expressing our feelings. ‘God, I’m Hungry’ expressed our lament to God. [The police] said they won’t limit our freedom of expression, but they did just that by coming to our house and pressuring our family.”

Authorities have announced they will no longer pursue the artists behind the murals, but critics fear the response has already created a chilling effect. 

Artist Rahman Seblat, who faced pressure in 2013 over a mural about the effects of oil drilling, said officials were overreacting, but that there were also lines to be drawn.

“As long as we make a mural that contains criticism, not insults, we don’t have to be afraid,” he told VICE World News.

This week, the debate reached Jokowi’s chief of staff, who said the leader was open to scrutiny, and brushed off claims the police were going after those who voiced dissent through the murals. 

But he added that the president is “our parent whom we really must respect.” 

“Don't talk carelessly, don't carelessly say something through a sentence or in a picture,” he was quoted by local media as saying. 

Additional translation by Annisa Nurul Aziza

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