'Many law enforcers don't understand human rights'
'Many law enforcers don't understand human rights'
SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): Human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis said many law enforcers "don't understand human rights" and often take power as the law.
"It's a fact that our judicial system is not yet free and independent, especially when dealing with cases which are politically laden," he told a seminar on human rights here yesterday.
"The intervention of power holders is still strongly felt here, and judges often fail to heed the laws and their conscience. Instead, they follow (the wish) of the power holders," he said.
Lubis and several other campaigners speaking at the seminar made a fresh call on the authorities to re-examine laws and regulations which infringe upon people's basic rights.
Lubis said that in many cases of human rights violations, local authorities often exercise policies which are more repressive than the laws upon which the policies are based.
"Various media reports have shown that many violations occurred because of the inadequate protection (provided) by the Criminal Code," he said.
He cited as examples the reported violations, in the forms of killings or beatings, in the provinces of Irian Jaya, Aceh and East Timor.
"There's a deep gap between the setting of human rights standards, with their enforcement," he said.
He also pointed out the numerous laws, either those which were established during the Dutch colonial times or those produced after the 1945 proclamation of independence, which run counter the principles of human rights.
He named as examples the haatzaai artikelen, a colonial-era law against people found guilty of sowing hatred, and more recent laws on political parties and on subversive activities.
"What's even more saddening is this reluctance among law enforcers to implement the laws because of various political, economic and cultural reasons," he charged.
He said there is no guarantee that a community which has established laws in line with the principles of human rights will also uphold them.
"The ratification of human rights instruments doesn't necessarily mean that there's respect for human rights," he said.
The seminar was held by the Diponegoro University in cooperation with the National Commission on Human Rights and the national committee for the 50th independence anniversary.
It also featured Commission members Muladi, Soetandyo Wignyosoebroto and Nurcholish Madjid, and philosopher Franz Magnis-Suseno.
Nurcholish focused his explanation on the long-standing debates over the "universality" of the concept of human rights versus the "relativity" of cultures on which the principles are implemented.
The campaign for human rights in most developing countries, including Indonesia, has often been hampered by debates over the two poles, he said.
For Indonesia in particular, the drive to encourage people's awareness of human rights can be conducted in the same way it is being done for other national programs such as family planning, he said.
Hope
"For instance, through reminding Moslems about how Islamic teachings respects human rights," he said. "There's always hope for us (in campaigning for) human rights here".
Magnis-Suseno, who is also a professor at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, said most of the objections against the concepts and implementation of human rights often come from those in power.
"They are the ones who often see human rights as an obstacle to their policies and plans," he said.
He reminded the participants in the discussion, however, that "human rights are actually a realization of the state-ideology Pancasila". The concept is contained in the second tenet, which states "a just and civilized humanity", of the five-tenet ideology, he said.
"Concerns about other human beings don't belong only to certain philosophies or religions," he said. "Recognition of the rights of everybody, every group...is a sign of how deep is the humanity and solidarity of the relevant communities." (har/swe)