Thoughts on human rights
Thoughts on human rights
More than two-and-a-half years after the fall of the
authoritarian New Order regime -- and 52 years after the United
Nations passed the historic Universal Declaration on Human Rights
-- some very basic issues concerning people's basic rights
continue to bother this nation.
For sure, the process of change that started rolling with
president Soeharto's forced resignation on May 22, 1998, and
culminating in the installation of President Abdurrahman Wahid in
October, 1999, has brought many positive developments where this
particular issue is concerned.
With a newly empowered national legislature and human rights
watchdogs keeping a tireless eye on the government, arbitrary
action against dissenting citizens by the state has been
drastically reduced, although it must be said that the use of
excessive force and violence still occur in a number of regions,
especially those where secessionist and sectarian conflicts are
raging.
In all fairness, it must be said that the government of
President Abdurrahman Wahid has so far shown a sincere interest
in upholding human rights, even to the point of putting a Cabinet
minister in charge of the issue. There is also no reason to doubt
the sincerity of the President's concerns over the conduct of
security officers in troubled areas, where combatants on both
sides easily lose self-control in the heat of battle.
Unfortunately, to note all this is not to say that the willful
violation of human rights has ceased to be an issue in this
country. Last week, even as the world was marking international
human rights day, Amnesty International and the New York-based
Human Rights Watch reported that a number of local aid workers
were killed "execution style" by government security forces.
Similarly, gross human rights violations committed by both
sides in ongoing religious and sectarian violence in Maluku
continue to occur, although the situation there has apparently
calmed down considerably compared to a few months earlier.
But lest we allow such current improvements in our human
rights to whitewash our human rights record, let us not forget
that none of the most flagrant human rights violations that were
committed by security personnel in the not-so-distant past have,
as yet, to be resolved. Indonesians are notorious for having a
short memory where such issues are concerned.
Who, for example, still remembers the indescribably human
tragedy of May 12 to May 15, 1998, in which more than 1,000
people are believed to have been killed and an uncounted number
of women raped? What has become of the so-called Trisakti
Incident, in which four students in the prime of their lives were
shot dead by still-unidentified gunmen? And what about the
Semanggi shooting incident and the disappearance of political
dissenters from 1996 through 1968? Not one of those cases has
been satisfactorily resolved.
The struggle to protect human rights in this country appears
at present to be gradually slowing down, even as Indonesians
continue to pay lip service to the issue. Gross violations
continue, notably in the remote provinces of Maluku, Irian Jaya
and Aceh. The real danger is that Indonesians, absorbed as they
are in the political squabbles that are being fought out in
Jakarta, gradually start losing interest in what is going on.
Because if that happens all the talk about democratic reform and
sacrifices that have been paid will have been in vain.