TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia must speak out for citizens' protection in Hong Kong
As the world’s third-largest democracy, Indonesia should now speak out about the crisis in Hong Kong — and the even more chronic human rights violations in China. When its own citizens are attacked, detained, expelled or mistreated in Hong Kong, Indonesia has a responsibility to make its voice heard.
Change Size
A police officer (C) holds a firearm during clashes with protesters who had gathered outside Kwai Chung police station, in support of protesters detained with the charge of rioting, in Hong Kong on July 30, 2019. (AFP/Isaac Lawrence)
W
hen I spent a month learning Indonesian at a language school in Yogyakarta and Bali recently, I did not imagine that two months later it would come in handy in relation to the crisis in Hong Kong. Yet when I learned of the horrific case of Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah, shot in the eye and left permanently blinded by a Hong Kong policeman as she simply did her job as a reporter, my heart went out to her. And as an expression of solidarity, I tweeted a message of support in my limited, very bad Indonesian.
The very next morning I opened my phone to find news of the detention and impending deportation of another Indonesian from Hong Kong, Yuli Riswati, a migrant worker and award-winning writer who has been detained for writing about the protests. Immediately I tweeted another message of solidarity in Indonesian.
Both these cases touched me, particularly for a few reasons. First, because I am a former journalist and value press freedom very deeply. When journalists or writers are shot at, detained or deported, it is a sign that something is going desperately wrong. Press freedom is one of the barometers of democracy.
Second, I used to live in Hong Kong, for the first five years after the handover 22 years ago. It was where I began my career as a journalist, and it was once my home. So I could identify with these two brave women who have devoted their lives to telling the world the truth about a city I love.
Third, I love Indonesia too, and while it has its challenges — particularly the rise of religious intolerance — it has made a remarkable transition to democracy over the past two decades. It was from Hong Kong just over 20 years ago that I watched the fall of the Soeharto regime and the transition to democracy in Indonesia.
It was in Hong Kong 20 years ago that I led protests for East Timor, now Timor Leste, at the height of the crisis there. And it was from Hong Kong that I took groups from churches to visit East Timor to provide help in the aftermath of the post-referendum violence.
At that time Hong Kong was an open city which, while it did not have democracy, nevertheless provided a hub for reporting and advocacy for those in the rest of the region who needed a voice. Today, it is Hong Kong itself that needs our voice.
