Activist urges RI not to let freedoms fade
Activist urges RI not to let freedoms fade
JAKARTA (JP): Failure to institutionalize political openness
this time around in a climate of relative freedom will lead to
the old trap of gags on freedom of expression, a human rights
advocate warned on Wednesday.
Joseph Saunders of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told
The Jakarta Post the current political openness must immediately
usher in legal and institutional protection for basic rights,
including freedom of expression.
"In the late 1960s when the New Order came to power, there was
also a period of openness, but that openness didn't last because
it wasn't followed up by the creation of legal and institutional
protection," said the associate counsel on academic freedom for
the organization.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Third Workshop
of the Asia-Pacific Regional Forum of National Human Rights
Institutions, which will end on Friday.
Saunders recommended that laws to ensure freedom of expression
should be drawn up soon. The 1945 Constitution has often been
held up as guaranteeing political freedom in its clause 28, but
its actual wording is that "freedom of association... and
freedom of expression... will be established in laws". The laws
have never been enacted.
Saunders compiled a new report released by Human Rights Watch
titled Academic Freedom in Indonesia: Dismantling Soeharto-Era
Barriers.
The report acknowledges efforts to end limitations on academic
freedom, but noted that restrictive laws were still in place.
"Students and faculties, well placed to contribute to and
enrich public debate on issues, were frequent targets (of
control)," the report states.
"With the success of the student protest movement in 1998,
these controls now have little practical effect, and Juwono
Sudarsono, Indonesia's new minister of education, has indicated
that they are under review. The report urges that they be
abolished altogether."
The New Order outlawed student politics on campuses in 1978 by
a ministerial decree; those caught violating the ban faced
suspension or expulsion from their institutions.
Human Rights Watch also urged an end to other Soeharto-era
gags on free expression, including the laws which it said were
most widely deployed to silence dissent -- ones on subversion,
another on "spreading hatred toward the government" and a third
on "insulting the head of state".
Saunders singled out barriers of mandatory ideological
background checks on teachers, dating back to their grandparents'
political views in the 1960s, heavy book censorship and the
blacklisting of government critics.
Other means of stifling students and teachers were permit
procedures, which effectively give military and government
authorities veto power over research projects, and other military
interference in campus affairs.
Until Soeharto fell from power, the report said, subjects
considered off-limits for open analysis were the growing wealth
of the autocratic leader's family and close associates;
discrimination against Chinese-Indonesians; military operations
in separatist-plagued areas such as Aceh, East Timor and Irian
Jaya and the prominent political role of the military.
"There was very little public discussion (of many pressing
social issues). And when you drive it underground you lose...
public understanding of the issue," Saunders said.
The organization's 11 recommendations included removal of the
ideological background checks for teachers, an end to military
interference in campus activities and a halt to book censorship.
It urged the government to account for the "disappeared"
people who were still unaccounted for. At least 24 activists,
including students, have disappeared this year. The nine who have
returned gave harrowing accounts of abduction and torture.
The military last month discharged one lieutenant general for
complicity in the abductions and revoked the military positions
of two others and ended their active duty. Ten members of the
Army's Special Force will also face court-martials. (aan)