Right leaders deplore threats to ICW
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Legal and human rights leaders deplored a threat by two civilian security groups, who are apparently linked with Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, to occupy the office of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), after the watchdog apparently angered the minister.
The rights activists also urged the National Police to take action and to protect the anti-corruption campaigners.
"It is the responsibility of the National Police to protect the office of ICW," Solahuddin Wahid from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) told The Jakarta Post here on Sunday.
He said the public could not be allowed to resort to violent action in response to criticism. If someone considers a criticism to be a form of defamation, then he or she should file the case a court law, he added.
Fellow rights campaigner Hendardi from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) joined the chorus of condemnation against the threats by the minister's people, saying it simply showed their disrespect of the law.
Nuwa Wea's supporters threatened on Saturday to occupy the ICW office in South Jakarta after giving the corruption watchdog an ultimatum that it must apologize to the minister within three days or else.
The group, claiming to be from the Banteng Jakarta (Jakarta Bulls) and Eksponen 27 Juli (July 27 Figures) was apparently enraged by ICW, which said that an investigation based on public reports it conducted had found that instead of holding a transparent screening process for insurance firms to cater to the needs of migrant workers, the minister had personally appointed five insurance firms, as part of the government policy to provide a special insurance scheme for migrant workers.
The two groups, who are closely affiliated with President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), to which Nuwa Wea belongs, accused the watchdog of slandering Nuwa Wea with its finding.
Nuwa Wea has denied the allegation.
The situation came to head when ICW deputy coordinator Danang Widoyoko said earlier that he planned to report the minister to the police after the enraged minister grabbed him, hit him in the head and heaped coarse language upon him at the end of a Metro TV talk show, wherein Danang had revealed in front of the live television audience on Wednesday about the alleged insurance scam.
"They (Nuwa Wea's guards) must not make such threats. It contradicts all existing laws," Solahuddin said.
He said if the National Police refused to protect ICW, such intimidation and thuggery would hamper freedom of expression.
He urged the minister to tell the two groups to back off, and refrain from taking the law into their own hands.
Hendardi concurred, saying the police must take immediate action to deal with intimidation from private security units.
He recalled similar incidents in the recent past, including the attack on the office of Tempo magazine by the private security unit affiliated with businessman Tomy Winata and the attack on the office of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) by a private group of military veteran's relatives.
Hendardi said that such gangster-like intimidation could readily be ordered by people with power or money in their hands.
"Acts of intimidation by one group against others will only weaken our legal system. If citizens do not respect the law, it will lead the nation to downfall," he said.
In its recent report, the International Crisis Group recommended the disbandment of all civilian auxiliary and private security militias as they often exacerbate, rather than allay, political tension, especially as the country will have elections in 2004.