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study by Jakarta-based Setara Institute confirmed mounting doubts over President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s commitment to uphold human rights following recent decisions deemed controversial, foreseeing ongoing lack of efforts to actually settle cases of human rights abuses by Jokowi'€™s administration.

According to the study, as many as 61.8 percent of the 200 academicians and human rights campaigners in 19 provinces that were engaged in the study were anticipating stagnant performance in upholding human rights during Jokowi'€™s five years in office.

Only 22.4 percent of the respondents still have faith in Jokowi'€™s will to uphold human rights, including to actually end the long overdue cases of past gross human rights violations.

The study cited four main reasons to the declining trust in Jokowi'€™s commitment, which includes: the release of convicted murder of prominent human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto; the government'€™s plan to soon execute five drug-convicts that were on death row; and the appointments of politicians Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno and HM Prasetyo as Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs and Attorney General, respectively.

'€œMany did not expect that Jokowi'€™s administration would actually grant Pollycarpus'€™ release [on parole] and expected that under his leadership, the government would review the proposal that had been submitted during the leadership of former president SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhyono],'€ Setara chairman Hendardi said on Monday.

He went on explaining that the installment of Tedjo and Prasetyo, whom activists slammed for their poor human rights commitment, in the two posts that were crucial in determining the fate of cases of rights abuses, reflected Jokowi'€™s poor knowledge and understanding in the issue.

'€œJokowi has so far shown that he is no different from SBY who has used human rights issues as a commodity to promote political interests. Jokowi must soon do something to win back trust in the matter,'€ Hendardi emphasized.

Of all the variables used to measure public perception of the commitment of the Jokowi-Kalla administration to human rights, the commitment to settle the cases of human rights violations that took place in the past has reached the lowest point.

Having affected by recent controversial decisions, on a scale 0 to 7, Jokowi has so far scored only 1.51 in his commitment to resolve cases of gross past abuses, which have been passed on from one administration to another.

Meanwhile, the study revealed that Jokowi has obtained the highest score of 3.09 in his administration'€™s long term plan on human rights, which was reflected through the improvements of state institutions that promote human rights, including the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan); as well as improvements in laws and regulations that promote the rights of the people.

'€œAlthough we'€™ve witnessed some unexpected and disappointing policies by the Jokowi-Kalla administration, it is still too early to measure the government'€™s work and dedication to protect human rights in the country,'€ Setara researcher Ismail Hasani said.

'€œThere is still a lot of time for the government to do much better than the previous government in order to improve the sluggish human rights work we'€™ve recorded from time to time,'€ he added.