Brilio.net/en - A petition calling for the government to start a legal process for Buni Yani continues to receive support, with over 150,000 signatures this week.
Yani has become the center of attention after a video of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama that he uploaded went viral and sparked a backlash from Islamic hardliner groups. In the video, the governor, popular by his nickname Ahok, is shown citing a Quran verse, which many later point out was blasphemous.
Yani has since admitted cutting a few words out of the video transcript, which inevitably altered the context and meaning of Ahok's speech. On November 2, just two days before a massive rally inspired by the video, a petition demanding him to be prosectued surfaced, calling the government to legally process Yani for his controversial video.
"Buni Yani, a Depok resident who claims to be a former journalist, researcher, and lecturer, has edited a video transcriptof Governor Ahok's meeting with residents of Pulau Seribu. He removed one word fro the governor's statement, which was '...being lied to *USING* AlMaidah 51,'" the creator of the petition wrote.
The petition has also been sent to President Joko Widodo, NationalPolice Chief Tito Karnavian, and National Polices Criminal Investigation Department. It aims to gather 200,000 signatures, and as of the publication of this news, the petition has been signed by 158,138 people.
Meanwhile, another petition titled "Save Bu Yani: Stop The Legal Process" was also created on November 5, targeting to gather just 25,000 signatures and having gained 18,463 as of the publication of this story.
Buni Yani is innocent in uploading the video of Governor Basuki Tjahya Purnama alias Ahok. Buni Yani was only doing his part as a citizen, an academic, and a media researcher who is protected by freedom of speech law in accordance to the 1945 Constitution. All demands regarding [a legal process for] him will be a bad precedent for law, truth, and justice enforcers in the nation," a description by Masyarakat Keadlina, the petition's creator, says.
(brl/red)
