16 VOLUME 5 NO 2 2021 Penal Populism in The Changing Status of Papuan Criminal Armed Group (KKB Papua) into A Terrorist Organization Leebarty Taskarina 1) , Nuri Widiastuti Veronika 2) 1 Criminology Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia 2 School of Social and Political Science, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 1 leebarty.taskarina01@ui.ac.id, 2) nuri.veronika@monash.edu Abstract The Indonesian government’s decision to change the status of Papuan Criminal Armed Group (KKB Papua) into a terrorist organization generated mixed responses. Over exposure on KKB Papua’s brutal acts by the media had showed a firm support for this decision and it had successfully influenced public opinion on justice and crime as well as contributed to deeper stigmatization towards the group. This status-changing decision signifies the penal populism policy, which was highly predisposed by political actors’ emotional state and ignored the legal mechanism to define a group as a terrorist organization (List of Suspected Terrorist and Terrorist Organizations). This paper analyzes government’s decision on KKB Papua’s status changing from penal populism point of view, where the construction of public’s punitive opinion had been highly dominated by the media. Employing a qualitative discourse analysis, this paper argues that the public anger, social discontent, and sentiments regarding a political event and the criminal justice system, had been justified as the “people’s will” which pushed government’s decision to determine KKB Papua as a terrorist organization. In turn, penal populism policy and media’s influence in presenting virtual reality to frame people's emotions had ultimately led to state hate crime against KKB Papua. Keywords: Penal populism; media; Papuan Criminal Armed Group (KKB Papua); terrorist organization Abstrak Penetapan KKB Papua menjadi organisasi teroris oleh Menteri Koordinator Politik, Hukum dan Keamanan Republik Indonesia (Menko Polhukam) menimbulkan reaksi sosial beragam dari semua lapisan masyarakat. Dukungan media terhadap politisi terus mencitrakan kekejaman KKB Papua sehingga mempengaruhi opini publik dalam memandang isu kejahatan dan keadilan serta memperkuat stigma KKB Papua sebagai pengganggu keamanan nasional. Kebijakan ini mengindikasikan upaya yang mengarah pada populisme penghukuman yang dipengaruhi oleh emosi dari aktor politik dan mengabaikan mekanisme prosedur penetapan organisasi teroris (Daftar Terduga Teroris dan Organisasi Teroris - DTTOT). Tulisan ini bertujuan menganalisis kebijakan penetapan KKB Papua sebagai organisasi teroris dari sudut pandang populisme penghukuman dimana konstruksi opini punitif masyarakat dominan dipengaruhi oleh media. Dengan metode qualitative discourse analysis, argumentasi yang dibangun dalam artikel ini berupaya mengisi kekosongan ruang diskusi dengan mengkritisi populisme penghukuman terkait KKB Papua sebagai organisasi teroris. Penelitian ini juga