W

ith the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 presidential election fast approaching, hopes are dimming that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will ever fulfill his promise to resolve past human rights abuse cases.

Entering his fourth year in office, Jokowi shows no signs of taking concrete actions to bring human rights violators to justice.

“It has been three years and we are losing more and more hope. Jokowi and [Vice President] Jusuf Kalla seem to be running away from their own commitment,” Muhammad Isnur of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) told the Post on Tuesday. “No progress has been made regarding past human rights abuses, including the Semanggi tragedy.”

Isnur was referring to the fatal protest on Nov. 13, 1998, when 17 people — including students — were shot and killed by the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) in front of Atma Jaya Catholic University in Semanggi, South Jakarta. A year later, violence erupted once again between security forces and protesters in the same area, killing nine.

The two Semanggi incidents took place following a series of human rights abuses allegedly committed by security forces in the last days of former president Soeharto’s rule.

On May 12, 1998, four Trisakti University students were shot dead in West Jakarta during protests that demanded political and economic reform in the New Order regime. The tragedy triggered mass riots and effectively ended Soeharto’s authoritarian regime.

Low-ranking police personnel were convicted in the shootings, but no one has been brought to trial for the riots.

“Like [former president] Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jokowi has never even once met with protesters who take part in Kamisan,” Isnur said, referring to the weekly rally in front of the State Palace held mainly by victims of human rights abuses.

Kamisan, from Kamis (Thursday), has been held every Thursday since Jan. 18, 2007. At the time, it was held mainly by families of victims of human rights abuses committed during and after the downfall of Soeharto in 1998. Today, Kamisan has become a symbol of the national struggle against impunity, with young people becoming its driving force.

Jokowi also made the controversial decision last year to appoint Wiranto, who was implicated in several abuse cases in 1998, as Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister.

The government then shocked rights victims by promoting former members of the Army’s “Tim Mawar” (Rose Team) to roles in the Defense Ministry, State Intelligence Agency (BNI) and National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT). Former Tim Mawar members were implicated in notorious cases of forced disappearances during the 1998 riots.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) slammed the granting of impunity to rights abusers, saying that such a move reflected the government’s inability to implement transitional justice.

KontraS alleged that the appointment of Wiranto as human rights minister was part of his plan to evade responsibility.

“We urge the government to take concrete actions to resolve past rights abuses. Also, the AGO [Attorney General’s Office] must be aggressive in investigating these cases,” said KontraS coordinator Yati Andriyani.

KontraS is also pushing the government to establish a presidential committee to speed up the settlement of past rights abuses, which must involve credible, integrated figures that have prominent track records in resolving humanitarian issues.

It also called on the seven newly appointed commissioners of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to take innovative actions in seeking resolutions.

Komnas HAM member Mochammad Choirul Anam said the most important step was to create an ad hoc institution outside the AGO to investigate the cases.

“We’re still seeking a concrete concept. Maybe we can recruit a team from Komnas HAM for the ad hoc body to ease legal procedures in resolving past rights abuses,” he said.

The government, meanwhile, claimed it could not solve the cases immediately because they were too complicated. “Law enforcers find it difficult to find evidence and witnesses because the cases happened a long time ago [...] Now, the situation has changed. But that doesn’t mean we should give up,” Wiranto said recently.