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Komnas HAM forced to assess presidential hopefuls
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will take an active role in assessing the human rights records of presidential and vice presidential candidates contesting the 2014 election, to encourage the countryâs eligible voters to choose pro-human rights leaders in July
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he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will take an active role in assessing the human rights records of presidential and vice presidential candidates contesting the 2014 election, to encourage the country's eligible voters to choose pro-human rights leaders in July.
The commission will gather leaders from each of the political parties contesting the upcoming elections at a meeting at its headquarters in Central Jakarta on Thursday to thoroughly discuss the parties' human rights platforms. Komnas HAM also plans to demand a commitment from each of the parties to address the country's many unresolved human rights violation cases.
'It can be predicted that all the political parties will normatively say that they uphold human rights. However, we want to carefully examine their respective stances on critical issues, from the protection of minority groups in the country to the resolution of past human rights violations, which have so far been ignored,' Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said on Monday.
Roichatul, who is also the leader of Komnas HAM's team on the settlement of past human rights violations, highlighted the urgency of a thorough assessment of parties' human rights platforms, as well as their presidential hopefuls, particularly as the issue of human rights was often portrayed as a form of 'foreign intervention'.
'The 1945 Constitution includes human rights values. Thus, it cannot be denied that human rights are an important issue for the next president, whoever that person may be, to ensure the promotion and protection of human rights values in the country,' she said.
'It is crucially important to make sure that whoever is elected president has a comprehensive and thorough understanding of human rights values and, most importantly, has not been involved in human rights violations,' she emphasized.
Komnas HAM revealed its decision to actively examine presidential hopefuls after several NGOs launched similar initiatives.
Komnas HAM newly elected chairman, Hafid Abbas, had previously insisted that the institution would refrain from assessing the human rights records of presidential candidates, despite calls from rights activists, arguing that it was not Komnas HAM's duty to do so.
'It is not included in the mandate granted to us by the law. Under my leadership, Komnas HAM will not comply with rights campaigners' demands,' Hafid said recently.
Hafid's predecessor, Siti Noor Laila, had also stated that assessing the human rights records of presidential hopefuls would only engage Komnas HAM in 'practical politics', which according to Siti, should be avoided in order to maintain the commission's neutrality.
Rights campaigners suspected that Komnas HAM's hitherto reluctance to conduct a hands-on assessment of presidential candidates' human rights track records was due to infighting within Komnas HAM, interpreted as an attempt to weaken the rights institution.
Their suspicions increased following the revelation that the wife of Komnas HAM's current leader was a legislative candidate for the Gerindra Party, whose patron, Prabowo Subianto, has been named the party's presidential candidate.
Prabowo, a former head of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), has been accused of ordering the torture and kidnapping of activists during the May riots in 1998, which triggered the fall of then-president Soeharto's New Order regime. Nine of the activists were released alive; but many others from the era are still missing and presumed dead.
In 2003, Komnas HAM released the results of an investigation, which found that Prabowo and Wiranto, chairman and presidential hopeful of the Hanura Party, as well as several other military officials, were responsible for human rights abuses committed during the 1998 riots. Wiranto was at the time commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI).
Komnas HAM submitted its findings to the Attorney General's Office (AGO), which has so far refused to take further action, arguing that Komnas HAM's findings lacked evidence.
Roichatul gave her assurances that Komnas HAM's involvement in assessing presidential hopefuls was not intended to 'smear' certain individuals, particularly Prabowo and Wiranto, as some might suspect.
'They will quickly defend themselves, and it is their right to do so. However, their names will never be disassociated from those incidents unless the government follows up on Komnas HAM's findings. It is urgent to clarify what actually happened,' she emphasized.
