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Don’t expect too much from Jokowi’s regrets over past atrocities
Within his almost 10-year tenure, Jokowi has managed to build his political empire, which now includes his former political enemies from the military.
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Jokowi regrets over past human rights abuses (JP/Hengky Setiawan)
J
ust less than two weeks after issuing a controversial regulation to enforce the problematic jobs law that was deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo made yet another headline by acknowledging and regretting 12 serious human rights violations that occurred in the past.
The atrocities include the 1965 anti-communist purge backed by the military, which killed 500,000 people, the killings and abductions of the 1998 student protests and riots and acts of violence in Papua and Aceh.
Jokowi is not the first president to issue this kind of statement. In 2000, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid publicly apologized to the victims and families of the 1965 killings and ordered the restoration of their rights. In this case, Jokowi seems to have backtracked from the late Gus Dur because the public did not hear a single word of apology in his Jan. 11 statement.
Many have criticized the absence of mea culpa, but the United Nations still considers Jokowi’s statement “an encouraging move” toward the reconciliation and resolution of human rights abuses in the country. Some have lauded it as a progressive step to restore the rights of the victims and their families. However, human rights activists are more skeptical, believing the President's statement is just a lip service, and demand more actions from him to end the decades-long impunity.
Looking back at Jokowi’s track record in politics, I can only argue that his latest twist is another testament to him being a typical Indonesian politician, whose maneuvers are unexpected and whose words are difficult to hold.
When Jokowi first ran for president in 2014, he promised to resolve all past grave human rights abuses in the country, a big promise that was effective to lure in voters, including me. Jokowi won the race in a too-close-to-call result. His naive background as a local businessman hailing from a small city in Central Java was indeed an advantage compared with his competitor, Prabowo Subianto, a retired military general who was implicated in several human rights crimes.
But like a true politician, Jokowi forgot his promises to address past human rights abuses and ended his first presidential term with no progress whatsoever. Fast forward to his second term, almost 10 years later, his pledge to resolve the atrocities never materialized.
