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mid increasing religious intolerance and a slate of still unresolved cases of human rights violations, the next leader of Indonesia is expected to bring the country forward in upholding human rights.

Therefore, the two candidates vying for the presidency, Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Prabowo Subianto from the Gerindra Party, are being urged to lay out their platform for how they plan to guarantee religious freedom and resolve past human rights abuses.

'€œReligious freedom is a fundamental element of human rights, as freedom in other aspects of life is impossible if the right to practice one'€™s faith is not guaranteed,'€ prominent rights campaigner Marzuki Darusman said at a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Marzuki, a former attorney general and commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), went on to say, '€œThe protection of human rights in the future will not be possible without first solving violations in the past because such a dark past will forever impede us from
moving on.'€

Two decades into the Reform Era, Indonesians now enjoy a much greater level of freedom than during the New Order Era.

But despite government claims that Indonesia is a free and tolerant nation, discrimination against religious minorities is on the rise.

Besides issuing a number of discriminatory laws and bylaws, the government has failed to protect minority groups, such as the Ahmadiyah or the Shia, and bring to justice those who commit attacks
against them.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, outlined in a report to be presented before the United Nations Human Rights Council next month that discrimination against minority groups, including in Indonesia, was due to a deviation of the law.

'€œIn Indonesia, for example, religious minority groups such as Ahmadis, Baha'€™is, Christians and Shias face physical attacks from militant groups with little intervention from the government,'€ he said.

He cited the case of the Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church congregation (GKI Taman Yasmin), which was forced to abandon its church in Bogor, West Java, because local authorities sealed the building in 2010. Even though the Supreme Court had ruled the congregation had a right to build and worship in the church, the central government did not intervene in the case.

Similarly, the government has been reluctant to resolve a number of past cases of gross human rights abuse, despite calls to do so from Komnas HAM based on its own investigations.

One of these cases concerns the 1998 May riots, which have entered the public debate as the July 9 presidential election nears. An investigation by Komnas HAM had implicated Prabowo, a former general, in the disappearance of 13 pro-democracy activists amid the riots.

Komnas HAM recently revived the investigation into the case after former Prabowo aide Maj. Gen. (ret.) Kivlan Zen, now a politician with the United Development Party (PPP), claimed he had key information regarding the disappearance of the activists.

Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said that the institution would summon Kivlan for the second time next Monday after the latter refused to respond to a Komnas HAM summons last week.

'€œWe will forcibly bring him to Komnas HAM to provide details regarding his claim,'€ Roichatul said.