Abdul Hakim elected Komnas HAM chief

Abdul Hakim elected Komnas HAM chief

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Noted lawyer Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara was elected chairman
of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) on
Thursday, with an uphill challenge of restoring the country's
poor records in rights protection.

Hakim, who replaced Djoko Sugianto, beat closest contenders
Solahuddin Wahid, a deputy chairman of the country's largest
Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Achmad Ali, senior
lecturer from Hasanuddin University and Djoko himself in a vote
by the commission's 23 new members.

Solahuddin, a younger brother of former president Abdurrahman
Wahid, and Zoemrotin K. Susilo, an executive of the Indonesian
Consumers Foundation (YLKI), were elected the deputy
chairpersons.

"In the very near future, we will make the campaign for public
access to information our top priority. We will monitor how the
government and legislators deliberate the controversial
broadcasting bill. The bill should not rob people of their
freedom of expression," said Hakim, also an executive of the
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM).

The commission will also keep an eye on the drafting of the
government-sponsored anti-terrorism bill, considering that "it is
prone to rights violations."

Under his leadership, the commission will push for the
completion of a bill on truth and reconciliation which the
country needs to settle past rights abuses.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of violent conflicts in
just about every corner of the country, characterized by
thousands of extrajudicial murders, torture, rapes and a host of
other serious human rights violations, but only a few cases have
even been investigated.

When asked whether the new commission members planned to
seriously follow up on the Trisakti and Semanggi murders, Hakim
said that they had done all they could and now would "hope" for a
breakthrough.

"Since the commission has submitted the results of its inquiry
into the incidents to the Attorney General's Office, the only
think we can do is to continue dialog with the Office to proceed
with the cases. I hope this effort will be enough to bring the
perpetrators to the court."

Earlier in the day, the family of the victims who were killed
in the three bloody incidents demanded that the new members of
Komnas HAM work with them, instead of letting the military
maintain its impunity before laws.