Procedural Neutrality and Inequality of Power Relations

This injustice is exacerbated by what we might call pseudo-neutrality in law enforcement. Often, investigators hide behind the procedural excuse that "every public report must be followed up." On the surface, this attitude seems professional and impartial. However, neutrality that is blind to context is a veiled bias towards the structurally stronger party (Rahardjo, 2009: 45). In cases of corruption or corporate crime, the reported party usually has financial resources and political networks that far exceed the reporter. When the law treats a retaliatory report full of vengeful motives with the same degree of formality as an original report filed in the public interest, that is when the law loses its spirit of justice. This procedural neutrality ignores the fact that whistleblowers are vulnerable legal subjects who need special treatment so that they are not crushed by the legal bureaucracy machine that they themselves set in motion.

Failure to Protect Witnesses and Whistleblowers

This systemic failure is also evident in how the witness and victim protection regime works in Indonesia. Currently, protection from the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) tends to be reactive and fragmented. Protection usually only becomes active after a certain legal status, such as Witness or Victim in the principal case, is formally granted. In fact, the threat of reverse criminalization usually arises in the gray area, namely in the transition from the investigation to the investigation stage, where the reporter is not yet fully "covered" by a strong legal protection status. Protection comes as a remedial measure, a treatment after the injury has occurred, not as a holistic prevention system (Manthovani, 2021: 88). As a result, in that critical time gap, the reporter has already been exposed to criminal risks, civil lawsuits, and administrative or social sanctions that destroy their life. The state seems to fail to understand that protection for those who uncover crimes must be a procedural right from the start, not just an additional facility granted after the case has progressed far.