Human Rights Issues Reemerge for 2019

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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Human rights issues, especially settling the past gross human rights violations, are again emerging in the 2019 presidential race.

Human rights issues have reemerged in the presidential campaigns of the two candidates vying for the presidency next year. Today’s challenge will be in convincing the critical middle-class voters that the programs, which have appeared several times in the post-reform general elections, will truly be implemented.

Under the theme of respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights, the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-K.H. Ma’ruf Amin pair emphasized in their vision and mission that the state had an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. They also promised to continue efforts to settle past gross human rights violations according to the rule of law. However, the details of the program were not disclosed, in contrast to the similar program Joko Wido-Jusuf Kalla proposed during their campaign for the 2014 election.

Meanwhile, settling past gross human rights violations were not included in Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno’s vision and mission.

Campaign spokesperson Siane Indriani of the Prabowo-Sandiaga camp said in Jakarta on Thursday (11/15/2018) that the human rights agenda was not explicitly written in the pair’s vision and mission. This was because human rights was generally viewed as an element that animated various points in the vision and mission.

Siane denied claims that Prabowo-Sandiaga would not address allegations of the past gross human rights violations. “We certainly want to open these cases. The problem is that thus far, when the Attorney General has handled it, it has never been proven that Pak Prabowo is a human rights violator. Therefore, this will become a political commodity, particularly during the general election,” she said.

Siane, formerly of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said that when she was an active member of the commission, she came across seven cases of past human rights violations that were difficult to resolve. This was mainly related to technical issues and political aspects on proving the cases.

These cases were the 1965-1966 incident, mysterious shootings, the Talangsari incident, the 1997-1998 forced disappearances, the May 1998 riots, 2001 Wasior-Wamena incident and the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II tragedies.

In the 2014 election, the Jokowi-Kalla camp was committed to resolving alleged human rights violations of the past, and also promised to revise the law on the military justice system.

However, details on the similar program are not provided in the Jokowi-Ma’ruf campaign for the 2019 election.

Hasto Kristiyanto, the Jokowi-Ma’rul National Campaign Team secretary, said the vision-mission and human rights programs were not presented in detail because it was general document. He added that the government programs and plans relating to enforcing human rights and thorough settlement of past gross human rights violations would be detailed in full after the election. “Concrete explanations will be provided by each related ministry on the details [of the program],” he said.

With regard to the promises on enforcing human rights that had been met, Hasto said that Jokowi’s priority in his first term was to develop the outer regions, reduce injustice and poverty, guarantee public education and health, and build infrastructure. These programs, he said, were also connected to meeting the public’s rights.

Regarding the settlement of past human rights violations, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Law and Security Affairs Minister was now forming a National Harmony Council. The council would be in charge of discussing issues and finding a resolution to cases of gross human rights violations in the past.

Mechanism

There are a number of ways to resolve past cases of human rights violations. Besides the judicial path, there is also the non-judicial channel of truth and reconciliation commissions. This non-judicial route has been taken in several countries, such as South Africa.

Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said that past gross human rights violations should be settled through the judicial system. However, this path would not necessary lead to imprisonment for those proven guilty of rights violations. ”After the court trial will be reconciliation, forgiveness and other processes as another [step]. However, it must start with enforcing the law,” he said.

Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said that resolving gross human rights violations of the past was important to guarantee that similar incidents would not reoccur.

Philosophy lecturer F. Budi Hardiman of Pelita Harapan University said that leaving past gross human rights violations unresolved would cause a collective psychological burden among the public. The nation would therefore be trapped in the past, making progress and evolution difficult.

Budi added that every presidential election would see public demands for the candidates to resolve past rights violations, so political candidates would also use human rights issues to market their political stance.

He said that human rights issues had become an old political “commodity” that candidates would always offer, but would never be implemented by elected leaders.

"Human rights issues are a very attractive political commodity in campaigns, but the people have been disappointed for a very long time. Therefore, if this issue arises again without concrete steps as to when and how it will be done, maybe the public already knows and is tired of it. "On the other hand, the camp that does not offer programs concerning human rights could possibly have problems withing the camp," he said.

Budi said that the educated middle class were concerned about human rights issues, so they could easily sense if the candidates were trying to deceive them.(AGE/EDN/GAL/REK)

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