Source : Muhammad Firdaus Imani (Informatics'18)
The UMS (Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta) Student Alliance held "1000 LILIN" action and prayer together as a form of solidarity over the death of NK and GE while participating in the pre-training and pre-rehearsal activities of the Student Regiment (Menwa), at the hall of law faculty, UMS, Sunday night (31/10).
The rain did not become an obstacle for dozens of students to participate in this action. Even so, the action only started around 21.00 WIB, a little later than the announced schedule. The action was opened with speeches from the chairman of the law faculty BEM (Student Executive Board), Ryan Redi Pradana, and the chairman of the UMS BEM, Widi Adi Nugroho.
In his speech, the chairman of the UMS BEM said that NK's family would report the case of NK's death to the police next week. When asked further, Widi explained that this case has not been reported to the authorities because NK's family still did not want it and would only be legally processed next week, in contrast to the GE case where the authorities were directly involved.
The action then continued with poetry reading and speeches from the participants in which they voiced three demands. First, thoroughly investigate the perpetrators of the murder of the Menwa pre-training participants, second, punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent, and third, disband Menwa.
Source : Muhammad Firdaus Imani (Informatics'18)
The UMS Student Alliance also stated that they strongly condemned the actions of seniority, violence, oppression, and injustice on campus. They also hoped that night could be used as a monument that Menwa should did not exist if the campus sided with Menwa and chose not to disband the UKM (Student Activity Unit).
After the oration ended, the participants prayed together for the late NK and GE, then the action was closed with a procession to Menwa secretariat and installation of several banners that read "DISEGEL MAHASISWA", "BUBARKAN MENWA", "JUSTICE FOR NAILAH", and sowed flowers in front of Menwa secretariat as a symbol of solidarity for NK and GE.
Source : Muhammad Firdaus Imani (Informatics'18)
When uploaded by bem.ums Instagram account (31/10), this action drew a lot of criticism from students, especially because UMS BEM was considered slow in responding to the NK death case that occurred last April, and it was judged to be just joining in because the GE case was being talked about a lot.
Regarding this, the chairman of the UMS BEM, Widi Adi Nugroho, when interviewed answered, "The reason for holding this action yesterday was because we had a meeting with the family, and it turned out that the family is still not wholeheartedly accept the case, not related to Nailah's death, but related to her case, then we took the initiative to hold pray together, why Nailah and Gilang, because this is the newest cases".
He also added that the slow response related to this case was purely the fault of the BEM, plus NK's family at that time were still busy dealing with the matter of NK's death and had not been able to provide clarification and talk about the legal case.
"Regarding this case, why are we bringing it up again and why we have to oversee, it is because the family will sue this to a legal case next week, so hopefully our friends will not forget about this case. Okay, indeed there are some people who say this action is too late, but for us it is never too late because this case is not over yet."
Regarding the response from the students, Widi said that his party did not care about the unfavorable response saying that this action was too late and so on. He also said that the BEM would not respond to unfavorable things that could slow down the fight to seek justice for the victims.
By holding this action, UMS BEM hoped that the campus will clarify the chronology of the incident more clearly, especially because the victim's family feels that this case is still not open and transparent even though the Timdis (Disciplinary Team) has provided the results of their investigation.
Writer : Muhammad Firdaus Imani (Informatics'18)
Editor : Ayu Ukhti Muslimah (English Education'19)
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