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Editorial: A gift of trust
On his second day in office, President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo received a âgiftâ from the UN, said Desra Percaya, Indonesiaâs permanent representative to the UN
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n his second day in office, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo received a 'gift' from the UN, said Desra Percaya, Indonesia's permanent representative to the UN. Indonesia retained its seat on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) having been re-elected by UN members to represent Asia, alongside India, Bangladesh and Qatar.
Desra said Indonesia's reelection was a 'real display of trust by the international community in Indonesia's human rights protection and promotion, strengthening democracy consolidation, as well as a form of optimism in our new government'.
The President seems fully aware of all the expectations being placed upon his skinny frame, regardless of the limitations he may have in addressing issues from A to Z. With regard to human rights, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has left him with a contradicting legacy of international recognition of Indonesia's progress, and a largely impenetrable wall blocking ways to resolve past and current human rights violations.
Given this highly complex backdrop, Jokowi's close supporters have confided that 'consolidation' is Jokowi's priority, as he must reach out and embrace the many different parties to find sufficient common ground before setting out his agenda with minimal distraction.
The painfully slow days needed to form his Cabinet are evidence of that difficult first step to start his five years in office.
In resolving human rights, one challenge is gaining enough interest from a public that might press him to move forward, rather than dwell in the past. On human rights, his vision and mission titled 'Nawacita', one of his citations from founding father Sukarno, states the goal of 'strengthening the presence of the state', among others by upholding the law through prioritizing 'just settlement of past human rights violations'.
The statement clearly expresses what many have felt, despite reformasi ' the absence of state protection to protect citizens in times of great need. The police have stood by or were helpless amid mobs that assaulted minorities.
As experts in the UNHRC noted following last year's presentation of Indonesia's country report, our culture of impunity remains 'endemic', despite the ratification of international rights conventions.
Future sessions of the UN will therefore no longer be interested in our wonderful progress on legal instruments on human rights. They mean little to the public itself when kidnappers and murderers walk free.
Clear actions would mean much more toward ending impunity and ensuring state protection for all citizens against abusers. Jokowi had signaled that loose ends were not acceptable: 'people can't just go missing', he said, responding to unresolved forced disappearances in the late 1990s.
Dozens of NGOs had earlier submitted to the president-elect a 'roadmap' of crucial steps in 'Re-discovering Indonesia', a compilation of survivors' testimonies on past rights violations across the country.
The testimonies showed constant patterns of violence throughout our history, repeated in today's democracy. A 'great Indonesia', as Jokowi's slogan goes, can only be possible if we can break this pattern to start anew.
