A day to reflect on state of Human Rights in Indonesia

A day to reflect on state of Human Rights in Indonesia

Benny YP Siahaan, Jakarta

Today we celebrate Human Rights Day, a clearly important day
for the human race. Ironically, in the case of Indonesia, many of
us do not know that Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day, with the
exception of those who are involved in or have a keen interest in
human rights issues.

Hence, it could be one of the signs that there is much more to
do in the field of promotion and protection of human rights in
the country.

However, the challenge lies not only at the national level but
also at the international level. The challenges posed by the new
millennium have become more complex and inextricably intertwined.
These new challenges includes a wide-range of conundrums from
terrorism to transnational crime. Indeed this is a tremendous
challenge that has to be seriously dealt with by the
international community.

Nevertheless, apart from those problems, if we reflect on the
years past, there has no doubt been progress made in the field of
human rights.

There is an ever increasing understanding of human rights as a
universal language; it is a word that you can find in almost
every corner of the world. Indeed, human rights, together with
democracy, has become a buzzword both in policy-making and civil
society circles over the past decades and the trend seems to be
continuing. Even a dictator who has a poor human rights record,
in his speech, has to put in one or two words regarding democracy
and human rights.

In this context, although most of us now agree that human
rights are universal many are still of the view that this
universality of human rights has been the victory of the West.

While the world conference on human rights in Vienna and other
subsequent UN documents have recognized that all human rights --
civil, cultural, economic, political and social-- are universal,
indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, they are applied
against different national and regional historical, cultural and
religious backdrops, making them difficult to achieve.

Indeed, at the international level the protection of human
rights still leaves much to be desired and a global consensus on
the content and implementation of those rights often seems
difficult to achieve. Thus, many quarters are still suspicious of
universality in the implementation of human rights.

One of the reasons is that human rights is a fluid concept. It
keeps developing. Since the coining of the term, it has been
developing. The first generation of human rights is about civil
and political rights, the second generation is regarding
economic, social and cultural rights. The third generation is
about solidarity rights.

Further, many concepts that were merely concepts and subjects
of discourse in the past have now become rights, such as self
determination, implying democracy and self government -- a
principle that was once thought applicable to all humankind, but
in recent times has brought disaster and bitter conflicts between
states and within sovereign states.

The persistent debate is not only whether human rights are
universal but also whether they are indivisible. If we observe
the criticism of the human rights' record in one country, mostly
it relates to civil-political rights such as torture,
restrictions to freedom of expression, etc. and seldom relates to
social, cultural and economic rights.

Indeed, the rise of human rights politics in the past two
decades poses a puzzle both to leaders and scholars of
international relations. Like many other states, Indonesia has
been inescapably involved in human rights politics at the
international level in recent decades. During this period
Indonesia has been increasingly active in participating in
discourse on international human rights.

Against this backdrop, for us as Indonesian citizens, it is
crucial to ask what Indonesia is doing, what it has not done and
what it should be doing in the field of human rights.

After the collapse of the Soeharto regime in 1998 the
protection and promotion of human rights have significantly
improved. For example, Indonesia now has a liberal press and
better conditions in the field of civil and political rights.

This at least shows Indonesia's commitment to the protection
and promotion on human rights although the most important thing
is its implementation. Indeed, social and economic development,
the improvement in individual and collective welfare and security
cannot be attained or sustained without full respect for human
rights.

Nevertheless, like the human being, no country is perfect.
Once you feel you are perfect, you tend to judge the human
rights' record of other countries.

Human rights promotion and protection is not about pretending
to be perfect. It is about being transparent and honest about our
strengths and weaknesses, and more importantly to do our best to
rectify them. If we continue to act as if we are perfect or
pretend to be perfect then the politicization of human rights and
human rights politics will always prevail.

The writer is an alumnus of Tsukuba University, Japan. The
views reflected herein are strictly personal.