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Human rights activists question Mahfud MD's promises
As long as human rights violators still sit in the Cabinet, Mahfud MD's taking the post will not be a significant advance.
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Coordinating Political, Legal Affairs and Security Minister Mahfud MD gestures during the Indonesia Onward Cabinet announcement by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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oordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD has promised he will resolve cases of past human rights abuses for the sake of the nation.
Mahfud, a former Constitutional Court chief justice, made the statement shortly after he was sworn-in as a minister, replacing Wiranto.
“It [past human rights abuses] will be discussed. The efforts to close past human rights [abuses] have been discussed,” Mahfud said at the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister in Central Jakarta on Friday.
However, human rights activists have neither been impressed nor convinced by Mahfud’s statement as he emphasized that he is committed to resolving the cases of human rights abuse not for certain groups but “for the good of the nation”.
“Don’t think that this has to fulfil the will of a particular group. But it should rather be for the good of the nation. If it [the rights abuse] is finally settled but then some people reject it and then consider it not finished, then it is not civil rights but gangsterism,” he said.
Mahfud MD is the first coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister not to come from a military background.
Mahfud replaces Wiranto, who held the post in the 2014-2019 period. Wiranto is a former military commander who, according to the United Nations and domestic groups, played a significant role in facilitating severe human rights violations by the Indonesian Army and Jakarta-backed militias during Indonesia’s withdrawal from East Timor following the UN-sanctioned ballot in 1999.
