The first gay Indonesian policeman to sue the conservative country’s police force for wrongful dismissal due to sexual orientation was back in court this week, determined to be reinstated.
Tri Teguh Pujianto, a 31-year-old former police brigadier was fired in 2018 after 10 years on the job when police in a different town apprehended him and his partner on Valentine’s Day as they were saying goodbyes at his partner’s workplace.
The landmark case in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation was initially thrown out last year after a judge told Teguh that he had to wait until the police internal appeals process was completed.
That is now over and Teguh refiled his suit in August in what rights groups say is the first case of its kind.
“This is my fight, my last-ditch effort,” Teguh said.
“Why won’t they judge my service for all those years? Why exaggerate my mistakes, which I don’t think were mistakes anyway?” he asked.
With the exception of Sharia-ruled Aceh Province where same-sex relations are banned, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, although it is generally considered a taboo subject.
However, the Southeast Asian country is becoming less tolerant of the LGBT community as some Indonesian politicians become more vocal about having Islam play a larger role in the state.
A survey by the Pew Research Center this year also showed that 80 percent of Indonesians believe homosexuality “should not be accepted by society.”
Discrimination and violent attacks against LGBT people have increased in the past few years, and police have prosecuted members of the community using anti-pornography and other laws. Lawmakers from four political parties this year have also been trying to garner support, so far unsuccessfully, to pass a bill requiring LGBT people to seek treatment at rehabilitation centers.
The Central Java Police have accused Teguh of breaching “ethical codes of the national police ... by the deviant act of having same-sex intercourse,” a court document shows.
Teguh’s legal team said that they are challenging what they call the “elastic” nature of the police code of conduct given there is no mention of sexual orientation in police regulations.
Representatives for the Central Java Police, Indonesian National Police and the Indonesian National Police Commission did not respond to requests for comment.
Dede Oetomo, a gay academic who runs the advoacy group GAYa NUSANTARA, said that Teguh had made history, whether he wins his case or not.
“He’s broken the mold because he’s brave. My hope is that more activists will emerge from cases like his,” he said.
Teguh now runs a barber shop, a side business that he started in 2013.
He said that he has always had the support of family and his friends in the force for his efforts to regain what has been his dream job since high school.
Asked why he is persevering, Teguh said that he is fighting not only for himself.
“I want to fight for basic human rights, so there will no longer be arbitrary actions taken against minorities,” he said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS