Truth commission can work if 'truth' is public

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/22/2007 8:50 AM | Opinion

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Sanur, Bali

Sometimes the right thing to do may not be the best thing to do. Thus the predicament of the joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF).

As it concluded its first phase of hearings here Wednesday, the commission was burdened with the weight of unenviable expectations: Cynics brush it off as a feeble excuse to preserve the impunity of perpetrators of the 1999 violence in East Timor, while others consign it undue hope, as if the hearings were the penultimate chapter of a whodunit.

As we enter the process of hearings it is important to recall that truth commissions are not about prosecution. They are not meant to dwell on the past nor are they designed as instruments of punitive justice.

The primary focus is healing and forgiveness.

Justice, it is hoped, can be served with the unveiling of the truth and the acknowledgement of responsibility. It is a process gaining recognition in the international sphere, as evidenced by the International Criminal Court's 2005 Darfur report which stated that ""traditional mechanisms of dispute resolution may also fulfill the need for justice"".

CTF members have described it as restorative justice, allowing all involved to overcome the trauma of events and avoid a state of collective denial.

Truth commissions around the world are established to help transitioning societies face the future by resolving the past, without the agitation that a prosecutorial process may bring about.

South Africa, Guatemala and Morocco are among the many countries that have pursued a similar course.

Others like Cambodia and Mozambique have, for now, decided not to look at their past for fear of agitating the present and jeopardizing the future.

In essence what these societies, all of whom are emerging from a dark past, are undertaking is a process of social transformation through reconciliation.

Truth commissions are a catharsis, purging socio-political and emotional tensions.

Responding to those who rebuked South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for focusing on absolution instead of prosecution, Bishop Desmond Tutu replied: ""The Allies could pack up and go home after Nuremberg, we in South Africa had to live with each other.""

For the governments of Indonesia and Timor Leste, the commission was the ""best"" viable solution.

It provides a platform to look forward for two emerging democratic administrations who know full well that prosecution in the present political context would be unattainable.

Leaders from both countries, particular Timor Leste, realize that without some form of closure the historical baggage of the violence of 1999 in the former Indonesian province would become a psychological hurdle obstructing the growth of bilateral relations.

""Instead of looking to the past with a heavy heart, it is better to look toward the future with a pure heart,"" Timor Leste President Xanana Gusmao said during the commission's inauguration in 2005.

Looking ahead, there are several measures which the commission should engage and prepare for before the end of its mandate in six months' time.

First is the need to better socialize and promote the process.

One of the key elements of truth commissions is the support and backing of the general public. The investigations and hearings are collective therapy.

This task is not the obligation of the CTF alone. Both governments should continue to place the highest degree of importance in promoting the commission's work.

A lack of public support, even knowledge, of its work will do little to bring closure to this chapter in our history. Looking at what has transpired over the past year, much of the commission's work has sadly remained oblivious to the public.

The success of this commission may also bode well for the setting up of Indonesia's own internal truth commission to look at abuses under Soeharto's New Order regime.

Though the CTF will officially end its mandate later this year, the healing process should not end there.

The commission should propose, and the government support, the establishment of bodies which can help victims with trauma assistance and perhaps even reparations.

Similar examples can be found in South Africa, which followed up the findings of its truth commission with a Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee, and in Chile, which founded a National Corporation for Reparations and Reconciliation.

Most importantly the commission must provide an authoritative record of what happened, even if it does not actually prosecute anyone.

It is essential that the final report submitted to Jakarta and Dili detail the spiral of violence which transpired.

These documents may provide the most lasting and important contribution to this nation: a basis to launch structural and procedural changes to ensure that such violence does not reoccur.

Anything less would only confirm suspicions the commission is but an excuse to avoid an international tribunal.

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