The story of human rights in RI

By Cornelis A. Boeky

JAKARTA (JP): The forefathers of independent Indonesia were mostly lawyers graduated from the well-known Dutch university of Leiden. Their training in Holland helped form their knowledge and awareness of basic and universal human rights. Their educational background is clearly reflected in the constitutions Indonesia has had since independence.

Since independence, Indonesians have known three constitutions formulated by these forefathers.

* The Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 (The 1945 Constitution).

* The Konstitusi RIS 1950 (the 1950 Constitution of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia).

* The Undang-Undang Dasar Sementara R.I. 1950 (the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia 1950).

Several days after first president Sukarno and vice president Mohammad Hatta declared the independence of Indonesia, the 1945 Constitution took effect. This constitution was very brief in nature, due to time constraints. No provisions which dealt in detail with human rights can be found in this constitution.

The new independent country was a unitary state consisting of big and small islands which were formerly under Dutch rule and known as the Dutch East Indies. Portuguese Timor, which is now East Timor, part of the Borneo island -- East Malaysia and Brunei Darusalam -- and the eastern half of New Guinea were political entities which belonged to other European colonial powers.

The Dutch, however, did not recognize the new republic proclaimed by Sukarno and Hatta. The Dutch had their own plan to transfer sovereignty to the Indonesian people. The Dutch plan was materialized in December 1949. Unlike the first proclaimed republic, the new independent country transferred by the Dutch to the Indonesian people was a federal republic with its own constitution, called the Konstitusi RIS 1950.

With the emergence of the free state, the United States of the Indonesian Republic (Republik Indonesia Serikat -- RIS), the republic proclaimed by Sukarno and Hatta and the 1945 Constitution was dissolved. Sukarno became the president and Hatta the vice president of the United States of Indonesia.

Konstitusi RIS 1950 was more comprehensive than the Undang- Undang Dasar 1945 and dealt in detail with basic and universal human rights.

Chapter V, Article 7 through Article 33, for example, dealt in detail with human rights. Chapter VI, Article 34 through Article 41 dealt with good governance and democracy.

Another landmark difference of this constitution was that it contained an article which gave the impression that this constitution was temporary. It required that the government and a legislative council (Konstituante) should work as soon as possible to draft a permanent constitution to replace it.

The federal republic did not last long because it was not the main goal of the Indonesia people. The main objective of Sukarno and Hatta, who had strong influence over the people, was a unitary state. So, the federal republic was dissolved without drafting a new and permanent constitution.

The forefathers were very wise when they agreed to the Dutch plan to transfer the sovereignty as a federal republic. The main objective was to ensure that sovereignty was in the hands of Indonesians.

Once sovereignty was in the hands of Indonesians and the Dutch went home, Indonesians would be free to do anything with the newfound independence.

So it went, leaders from all parts of the country convened and reached a consensus to return to a unitary state. The reincarnated unitary state had its own constitution, Undang- Undang Dasar Sementara RI 1950, which seemed to be more a copy of the Konstitusi RIS, particularly with regard to human rights provisions.

This new constitution also dictated that the government and Konstituante should work as soon as possible to draft a new and permanent constitution to replace this temporary constitution. As a result of a general election in 1955, a Konstituante was formed.

However, because of the ideological differences between the representatives, especially when they came to question the true state principles (Pancasila or not Pancasila), the Konstituante did not succeed in drafting and adopting a new and permanent constitution.

The ideological conflicts among factions within the Konstituante nearly caused the country to fall a part. Outside the Konstituante building, local rebels became more and more intense which endangered the political and socioeconomic condition of the young country. The Konstitutiante was finally dissolved by Sukarno with the support of the Army. Sukarno also declared that the country would return to the 1945 Constitution despite its limitation as compared to the other two constitutions aforementioned.

Thus, universal democracy and human rights have not been foreign to Indonesians, before or after independence. The fact was that during the middle and last parts of the Sukarno regime, a result of Cold War rivalries, and the whole period of former president Soeharto's government (as part of his efforts to maintain power), there were efforts to take the people away from the awareness of democratic principles and basic and universal human rights with the true meaning of the words.

In order to maintain their power, the administrations created a new brand of principles or quasi principles with a local brand such as Sukarno's guided democracy and Soeharto's Pancasila democracy.

Human rights must be a la Indonesia. These new brands of democracy must be different from the one universally recognized.

Sukarno as well as Soeharto wanted the people to believe that their new brand of democracy and human rights were the best in the world. They wanted the people to believe and do without further questions.

During Sukarno's time, for instance, people had to take what was called the kursus indoktrinasi (indoctrination courses), while during the Soeharto rule, they had to follow the Penataran P4 or briefings on Pancasila teachings and ideology.

In schools and universities, students had to recite the Pancasila teachings, but they did not understand their meaning or their implications on real life. While people were made to believe that the participants of the indoctrination courses had been "born again" and were free from any wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power took place and kept on increasing day after day. Arrests, kidnapping and detention of political opponents without trial were normal in this Pancasila country. Although recognized by the constitution, freedoms of religion and of expression are luxuries.

Now is the time to return to the true principles of democracy, government by the people for the people and respect of human rights principles -- freedom of want, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and other freedoms with which God endows His creatures.

But there are no freedoms without limitations. The limitations are to secure the freedom itself.