Rights Commission's independence

Rights Commission's independence

When it was launched in 1993, many people who wanted a speedy establishment of democracy tended to scoff at the National Commission on Human Rights. It was very much felt that the Commission was formed -- by the government, not by independent parties as is usually the case elsewhere -- above all to accommodate international pressures, coming from donor institutions in particular.

The public in general, however, seems to be of a different opinion. Realizing that an institution now existed that was willing to listen to, and perhaps to take steps to follow up their complaints, they -- ordinary people whose property was appropriated, land owners who were evicted and paid only a negligible sum in compensation, or workers who were ill treated by their employers -- came to the Commission to air their complaints.

Naturally this phenomenon is gratifying from the point of view of this nation's democratic ideals. At the same time it is disheartening because it is an indication of the public's distrust in and the inadequacy of that bigger, permanent, constitutionally assigned and older institution: the House of Representatives.

The fact that the larger part of complaints come from the provinces is all the more an indication that at the provincial level the work of the legislative council is much more distressing.

-- Republika, Jakarta