Waiting for the President’s Promises

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Some family members of victims of past human rights abuses who have been holding silent protests every Thursday meet with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the State Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday (31/5/2018). The families have been holding protests in front of the State Palace every Thursday since Jan. 18, 2007. It was the first meeting between the families of victims and President Jokowi.

Thursday, May 31, was a meaningful day for families of victims of past human rights abuses. For the first time, they had an audience with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

The mothers of past human rights abuses have been holding silent protests every Thursday — popularly called Kamisan (Kamis means Thursday in Indonesian) — in front of the State Palace since Jan. 18, 2007. They demand the government resolve cases of past human rights violations that allegedly took place during the New Order Era.

After holding the routine protests for 11 years, the families of victims were finally received at the State Palace by President Jokowi, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, presidential spokesperson Johan Budi SP and presidential expert staff coordinator Teten Masduki.

“Finally, President Jokowi is willing to receive us,” said Sumarsih, the mother of Norma Irawan, a man who was shot and killed by the authorities on May 13, 1998. The Kamisan silent protests organized by mothers of victims of human rights abuses are similar to the struggle of Argentinean mothers at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. Their children went missing during commander Jorge Rafael Videla’s military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.

Argentina has more or less resolved its cases of human rights violations during its notorious “Dirty War” period. An investigation report of the human rights violations, titled Nunca Mas! (Never Again!), has already been published. Apart from Argentina, South Africa has also resolved its past human rights abuses through its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the influence of two leading statesmen, namely Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

In Indonesia, even 20 years after the Reform Era began, the issue of past human rights abuses remains a political commodity that overshadows the entire nation. Victims remain victims. Meanwhile, figures directly related to and possibly responsible for past human rights abuses still cling to political power in the so-called name of democracy. Here, morality is questioned.

We hope that the meeting between President Jokowi and families of victims of past human rights abuses will signify the President’s position as a statesman committed to resolving these past abuses. Resolving past human rights abuses should be nothing new for President Jokowi as it was included in  Nawa Cita, Jokowi’s nine-point development program that took him to the presidency. Resolving past human rights abuses in just ways was clearly stipulated in Nawa Cita. The meeting with families of victims was just a means to urge President Jokowi, amid his focus on infrastructure development, to fulfill his promise.

All relevant stakeholders must compromise to resolve past human rights abuses. If the mechanism of an ad hoc human rights tribunal is deemed too complicated, another mechanism acceptable by all parties is necessary to release the nation from the grip of the past in order to move forward with a new and improved respect for human rights.