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President likely to skip UN General Assembly, again
Amid international attention over the weeks-long unrest in Papua and haze from Indonesia's forest fires engulfing parts of the country and its neighbors, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is likely to skip the last United Nations General Assembly session of his first term in office
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span>Amid international attention over the weeks-long unrest in Papua and haze from Indonesia's forest fires engulfing parts of the country and its neighbors, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is likely to skip the last United Nations General Assembly session of his first term in office.
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko has confirmed that Jokowi will again skip the largest multilateral summit where world leaders are expected to raise various global issues at the UN headquarters in New York in the United States.
“He is likely to be represented by Vice President [Jusuf Kalla],” Moeldoko told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The last time an Indonesian president gave a speech before world leaders at the General Assembly was Jokowi's predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his final year in office in 2014. Since then Indonesia has been represented by Kalla.
With the probable absence of Jokowi, Indonesia might lose ground in answering criticisms over the protests and rallies in Papua’s major cities, triggered by racial abuse against Papuan students in East Java. The unrest reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least nine civilians, one soldier and a member of an unidentified armed group, in a number of locations in Papua.
Indonesia has also been widely criticized for shutting down the internet in its easternmost region between Aug. 19 and Sept. 4, which the government claimed was intended to prevent the spread of misinformation. Jokowi met with a Papuan delegation on Sept. 10, promising its members more infrastructure as a way to defuse further tensions, but the meeting was also criticized for failing to touch on alleged human rights violations or the calls for self-determination.
Alleged human rights abuses in Papua have been a recurring issue raised by Pacific island countries at the UN General Assembly, particularly by Vanuatu, whose Prime Minister Charlot Salwai called for an investigation into Papua last year.
However, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia was ready to respond to any questions on Papua in the coming meeting.
“If it’s raised, of course [Indonesia] will make a response,” he said without detailing what kind of arguments Indonesia was preparing.
Ani W. Soetjipto, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Studies, said Indonesia should stop being defensive about the allegations of human rights violations in Papua. “Indonesia must develop a new strategy for how to respond. It should build a new narrative that does not deny rights violations."
The Papua issue was also brought up in the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu last month, where member countries "strongly encouraged" Indonesia to finalize the timing of a visit by the UN high commissioner for human rights to investigate alleged human rights abuses and allow the commissioner to create an “evidence-based, informed report” on the situation in Papua.
Most recently, at one of the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva on Tuesday, Vanuatu, which also spoke on behalf of Solomon Islands, expressed its concern about violations of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as well as about racial discrimination against Papuans, while also complaining that Indonesia had not yet given the UN rights commissioner access to Papua.
In response, Hasan Kleib, the Indonesian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, claimed the government had facilitated freedom of expression “as reflected in the decision to lift the temporary internet restriction on Sept. 4”. He said the internet restriction was based on prevailing laws and was a balancing act between freedom of expression and public interest.
He said the government was in the process of coordinating the planned visit by a UN envoy.
Indonesia has also attempted to ingratiate itself with the Pacific countries by engaging with the existential problems caused by climate change, saying that Jakarta is committed to being more instrumental in overcoming such challenges.
However, such commitments have been undermined as Indonesia has signally failed to control illegal slash-and-burn practices for agricultural land on Sumatra and in Kalimantan, which have caused deteriorating air quality not only in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, Singapore and most recently the Philippines.
Authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia have closed thousands of schools, while Singapore has taken steps to ensure the upcoming Formula One weekend will continue despite the smothering haze, according to local reports.
Malaysia and Singapore have repeatedly offered support to extinguish the fires, but Indonesia seems adamant about dealing with the problem on its own.
