Indonesia's human rights diplomacy

Indonesia's human rights diplomacy

Budiono Kusumohamidjojo
Jakarta

On Jan. 17, Makarim Wibisono, one of Indonesia's outstanding
career diplomats, was elected chairman of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) for 2005. The strategic
importance of the UNCHR nowadays is second only to the Security
Council. It is in within the framework of this challenging
development that Puja Wesaka, director for human rights at the
Indonesian Foreign Ministry, convened a well-attended seminar on
its strategic meaning on Feb. 7.

People used to believe that a country's foreign policy
reflects its domestic political constellation and that
consequently diplomats represent their countries' political
interests. However, Makarim's election to the prestigious office
by acclamation reflects the international recognition of his
personal gifts and reputation and does not necessarily indicate
an acknowledgment of Indonesia's accomplishments in the human
rights field. As a result, Makarim's chairmanship of the UNCHR
can be seen as an honor for him on the one hand, but also as a
tremendous challenge on the other hand.

He will be expected to bring together and preside over a forum
of about 3,000 participants comprising different political actors
and stakeholders and make them talk to each other and cooperate
despite their often conflicting opinions and interests. The
chairman of the UNCHR is bound to address and deal with various
cases of human rights violations from all over the world. His
biggest challenge will stem from the tacit requirement that he
act impartially but also effectively in bringing about strategic
decisions geared toward improving the global constellation as
regards respect of human rights.

The irony is that Indonesia's unimpressive record on human
rights is unlikely to provide Makarim with the empirical and
substantive support he needs. He will also have to cope with
challenges for which he should not be made accountable
personally. It is precisely because he is an Indonesian diplomat
chairing the UNCHR that he may have to respond to people asking
about Aceh, Papua, Poso and probably also the Munir case.

Indonesia's turn to chair the UNCHR in 2005 could also easily
turn out to be an opportunity for international pressure to be
applied against us to improve our own performance as regards
respect for and protection of the human rights of our own people.
The struggle for independence and the 1945 Constitution were
based on respect for human rights! It is simply a rule of thumb
that one should put things at home in order first before trying
to do so around the neighborhood.

Notwithstanding the delicate domestic situation, it would be
premature and unfair to make negative prognostications regarding
the effectiveness of Makarim's leadership of the UNCHR in 2005.
However, it is indubitably the case that he is aware of the that
he will most likely have to face international pressure addressed
to the Indonesian government to seriously implement programs to
improve the human rights situation in our country.

On the positive side, Makarim's appointment as UNCHR chairman
may indeed lead to improvements in the sense that Indonesia may
feel the need for change. In other words, the benefits of
Indonesia chairing the UNCHR in 2005 may mostly accrue to
Indonesia itself. But again, this is a sort of predictive
reasoning. The UNCHR sessions and proceedings in 2005 are
expected to produce more than 100 resolutions. We should
remember, however, that resolutions have a rather poor reputation
in the history of the UN. Nevertheless, Ambassador Wirjono
Sastrohandoyo maintains that resolutions produce a lot of
publicity and that publicity can result in wide-ranging social
pressure. Sustained pressure of this nature can push societies
towards better practices in matters related to human rights and
also in other walks of life. The same possibility may apply in
the case of Indonesia as well.

If best practices in respect for and protection of human
rights become the reality on a daily basis, a new set of values
will come into being. And living values form the solid foundation
for binding laws. Wirjono noted that where there is widespread
adherence to the rule of law, there is also evidence of better
respect for and protection of human rights. But is there, indeed,
a correlation between this process and democracy? There is no
doubt that Indonesia's peaceful progress towards democratization
has elicited praise from around the world.

In reality, however, there is no guarantee that democracy will
result in best practices regarding human rights as amply
demonstrated in Indonesia during the seven years following the
downfall of the New Order regime in 1998. Former Attorney General
Marzuki Darusman argued that the New Order regime provided the
international public from time to time with a "democratic face of
authoritarianism" in order to cope with sporadic human rights
violations. Not very long ago, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs had a hard time trying to rationalize, if not actually to
defend, such anachronisms.

There is no doubt that the Indonesian foreign ministry has
consistently played a ground breaking role that led to the
election of Makarim to chair the UNCHR in 2005. However, we
regret to note that the Indonesian domestic situation regarding
human rights does not reflect the advances made by the foreign
ministry.

It would be tragic if Indonesia's democratization process over
the coming years failed to reflect the good work done by its own
foreign ministry. And the world would deeply regret it if
Indonesia's peaceful endeavors towards democracy only belied its
substantive authoritarianism.

It would be a pity and a lost opportunity for the country to
regain the international respect that it once enjoyed,
ironically, during the era of an "authoritarian regime smiling a
democratic face". It is in this respect that Indonesia's formal
and informal leaders must avail of Makarim's chairmanship of the
UNCHR in 2005 so as to ensure the adoption of best practices in
matters regarding human rights.

What if they fail to comply with these requirements, even
though they are in the interests of our own people? Then we must
remember that no country is an island, particularly in this era
of globalization, which rules that either you get on board or you
get left behind and become isolated.

If we do not foreign powers to enforce change in the name of
globalization, then it is essential that we induce reasonable
change from within. We wish you good luck, Makarim Wibisono!

The writer is a board member of the Indonesian Working Group
on Human Rights Mechanisms.