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Indonesia urged to take concrete action over past human rights abuses
Jakarta Post - January 21, 2016
The International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to issue a government regulation arranging settlement of the past human rights violations that still shadow Indonesia as a country.
"President Jokowi should apologize to the victims and their families since they have been victims of past government policies, as well as to Indonesia in an acknowledgement of past wrongdoings so that we can all move on as a nation," INFID senior program officer for Human Rights and Democracy Mugiyanto told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday.
An official statement of regret can be the initial step toward the resolution of the past human rights violations, such as 1965 Communist purge, the Talangsari killings, the Tanjung Priok incident, the students murdered during the 1998 movement, along with forced disappearances, the Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua, up to the murder of human rights activist Munir.
"An apology was necessary because such a statement indicates a commitment from the government that such acts would not be repeated again in the future," he said adding that that the step must be followed by the fulfillment of victim's rights for truth, justice and reparations.
A thorough and fair settlement begins with the revelation of the truth, Mugiyanto said, highlighting that it was important for people to know what happened behind those events.
Mugiyanto himself was a student leader in the anti-Suharto reform movement in 1998 and was one of the pro-democracy activists who was kidnapped and later released alive. President Jokowi vowed to settle all past human rights violations by mid-year.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan suggested for the settlement would be made through a non-judiciary mechanism to speed up the process, explaining that a lack of evidence might hamper the investigation if the cases were to proceed to a legal settlement.
Equality
Another urgent suggestion put forward by INFID was the need for the government to accelerate the preparation of a roadmap in pursuit of reducing the Gini ratio – a measure of income inequality – from 0.41 to 0.36 as included in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJM).
Citing an example from Brazil, which took 15 years to obtain that goal, INFID program manager Siti Khoirun Nikmah stressed the urgency of immediate concrete action.
"A 0.05 point drop is an ambitious goal that has been set to be reached within five years and the government has already wasted time throughout 2015," she said.
The organization's executive director, Sugeng Bahagio, expressed hope that the government will take into consideration INFID's suggestions in shaping their policy developments toward a better path throughout this year. (rin)(+)
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