Democracy deficit dents RI leadership

As ASEAN chairman, Indonesia faces challenges in promoting and upholding democracy and human rights in a region where democracy is in deficit due to certain types of governance among member countries.

“Is democracy in deficit in ASEAN nations? Yes, because democracy failed to deliver prosperity, freedom, justice, peace, transparence and accountability,” a researcher at the Research Center for Politics of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Adriana Elisabeth, said in a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The discussion was jointly organized by LIPI, the permanent mission of Indonesia to ASEAN and NGO Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Adriana said 2010 research by an ASEAN team concluded that the implementation of democracy and human rights in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines was in deficit.

The parameters included poverty and unemployment, political and community violence, corruption, cronyism and bad governance, she said.

“Political and community violence still exists everywhere [in ASEAN],” said Adriana.

She also cited how Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines participated in the World Forum for Democracy in Warsaw in 2000 but did not sign the declaration it produced.

The Warsaw forum agreed that, among other things, all human rights — civil, cultural, economic, political and social — must be promoted and protected as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.

“It is important for Indonesia as ASEAN chair to endorse common norms and values in ASEAN, to practice democracy, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Adriana said.

Echoing Adriana, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti, another LIPI researcher, said ASEAN norms should also be reflected in national laws in every member country.

The ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers “is limited by continued primacy of national laws and regulations,” Nuke said.

She also said that among ASEAN members it was only the Philippines who had ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers (ICRMW), while Indonesia and Vietnam only had signed it.

“It means both countries [Indonesia and Vietnam] agree with the [ICRMW] but do not think they should follow it,” she said.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are among the worker-sending countries, with Indonesia and the Philippines being the largest in the region. The number of Indonesian migrant workers — formal and informal sectors combined — amounted to 632,172 in 2009, according to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry’s 2010 data.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa previously said that during its chairmanship, Indonesia would work on ensuring that the ASEAN Human Rights Commission would be more effective, reflecting ASEAN’s commitment to respecting human rights.

Indonesian Ambassador to ASEAN Ngurah Swajaya also said during the discussion that ASEAN had managed to establish the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and the ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children.

Human rights NGO Imparsial program manager Al Araf separately said it was important for Indonesia to promote and uphold human rights values during its chairmanship, otherwise other members would not take Indonesia’s words seriously.

“But Indonesia should also remember to finish its homework. There are still cases of many human rights abuses that remain unsolved today,” he said.