Trapped in a Secret Love

Last month, I met an old friend of mine i.e. Joni Junaidi (54), at the Pan d'Or Restaurant in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

I first met Joni more than 30 years ago when we were both studying at the Trisakti University in West Jakarta, where I studied Law and Joni studied Accounting. Since then we became close friends.

Upon graduation, Joni worked as an accountant with a Jakarta based multinational oil and gas company for 30 years. He lived with his wife Aisha (52) whom he had married for 26 years, and a couple of wonderful children Josie (25) and Jennny (23) at a nice home in South Jakarta.

All of this time, I always thought that Joni's family is one of those model happy family whereby Joni is an ideal husband/father and Aisha as an ideal wife/mother.

For that reason, I was very surprised when Joni told me that he want to talk about a problem related to his family life.

Joni revealed that for the last four years he has been having a secret affair with Rosa (49), his old girlfriend whom he broke up one year before he married Aisha.
Rosa is married to Eddy with no children and unhappy because Eddy is an alcoholic and often beat her brutally when he gets drunk. For that reason, she has filed a Divorce Lawsuit with the Religious Court of South Jakarta.

The problem for Joni is that Rosa asked him to marry her soon after her divorce lawsuit has been granted by the Religious Court.

In this connection, I told Joni that according to the Indonesian Criminal Law, he and Rosa can be regarded as having committed the Crime of Adultery. Article 284 of the said Law stipulated that Adultery is sexual intercourse between a married man and a woman (married or unmarried) which is punishable by the Court to a maximum penalty of 9 months in Jail, provided that their spouse file a complaint with the local Police.

I advised Joni to end his love affair with Rosa, and Joni said that he already talked to Rosa about that possibility but she refused by saying that she agreed to have sexual intercourse because Joni has promised to marry her. Rosa even threatened that she would reveal their love affair to Joni's i.e wife Aisha if Joni ever leave her.

I urged Joni to try his very best to persuade Rosa not to reveal their love affair to Aisha because it would make both of them end up in Jail.

Note:   I have changed the names of all the persons, time and places.