The quiet revolution in Indonesia's human rights

Jonny Sinaga, Jakarta

Some time this year Indonesia will be categorized as a new party to the very important agreements on human rights, after the House of Representatives (DPR) endorsed two draft laws at the end of September on the accession of Indonesia to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. By UN standards, this development is very important. One of the most important provisions of the covenants is the guarantee of press freedom.

But aside from this new development, how should we see objectively the situation or development of human rights in this country and are we going in the right direction?

In a seminar on Strengthening human rights in Indonesia in Geneva on April 5, 2005 conducted by the Frederich Ebert institute, one of the speakers, the outspoken Ravi Nair from India, mentioned tremendous developments in the field of human rights in Indonesia over the last few years. He cited two examples that cannot be undermined, such as the successful separation of the Indonesian Police (Polri) from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the transfer of the long-criticized administrative judicial authority from the Ministry of Justice to the Supreme Court.

This is interesting. While outsiders, including international NGOs, can see progress in Indonesia, the local NGOs seem to still have difficulties seeing the positive developments. In the same Geneva seminar, one of the speakers representing a human rights watch group in Indonesia spoke almost in contradiction of Ravi Nair.

According to the domestic NGO representative, there is no good in Indonesia that come out of a genuine initiative; everything must be the result of pressure from outside the country. That is why he suggested that the international community continue its pressure on Indonesia so that progress can be made in the future.

Actually both deserve some consideration. The progress in human rights in Indonesia since the era of reformasi is quite significant, and there is no doubt that violations of human rights, especially during the 32 years of New Order regime, when power was used as the only tool to overcome all social problems.

Indonesia must change its whole way approaching these things and must be willing to learn lessons from past mistakes. The recognition of outsiders must be used as an opportunity to continue the right policy while criticism should be used as a tool to accelerate the developments and prevent any actions that can be deemed as human rights violations.

If we take a look at the human rights history in Indonesia, the issue of human rights should not have been foreign to the country. Indonesia was born out of human rights struggles for more than 350 years against colonizers.

However, there was time in Indonesia when even talking about human rights was unpopular. Until 1993, when the international community gathered in Vienna to discuss ways to promote and protect human rights, the discussions of human rights in Indonesia were still very rare. Many people were still fearful of discussing human rights. After Soeharto's fall in 1998, the situation then much improved.

As a result of the reform movement, the efforts on the promotion and protection of human rights in Indonesia were no longer just rhetorical. The national plan of action on human rights contained some concrete initiatives and policies related to human rights. It was implemented over a five-year period from 1998. That was why there was no doubt for the government to introduce the new plan of action for another five years covering 2004-2009 contains, inter alia, the accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

However, the right track that the government has been following is not without preconditions and the government shall not take it for granted. It can be twisted, or even marred, by unnecessary actions that reflect on the lack of understanding of human rights.

In terms of freedom of religion, which is also guaranteed by the above covenants, inaccurate or belated actions by the government officials to prevent any actions by the society with regard to "any religious groups" or the existence of worship buildings can be a setback for the government's achievements in the field of human rights.

The trend to use a criminal justice system approach when people disagree with the content of published news can also be categorized as being in contravention of human rights in Indonesia, which can be another prospective contravention of those covenants.

The unfortunate death of a prominent human rights defender is certainly also a setback for Indonesia's human rights achievement. It is another slap in the face for Indonesia's human rights proponents in the international forum. The mishandling of minority groups is also another issue that needs to be properly tackled by the government if it wants to be considered successful in this regard.

By all of these things, it can be concluded that the commitment from this government is there and it is on the right track already. The only thing that needs to be taken into serious consideration by all of us (government, business and society) are our sincerity and willingness to have a human rights friendly Indonesia, not the opposite.

The writer is working at the Department of Foreign Affairs and the views expressed are strictly personal.