In the latest show of the discrepancy, Attorney General ST Burhanuddin has maintained his neglect of Komnas HAM’s findings that the Semanggi I and II incidents in 1998 and 1999 respectively constituted gross human rights violations. Burhanuddin recently appealed to the Jakarta Administrative High Court (PTTUN) to overturn a lower court’s verdict in early November that ordered him to announce that the tragedies were serious rights violations

At least 17 lives were lost when security troops quelled students and others who rejected the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) special session in November 1998. In September 1999 no less than 12 people, including students, were killed in a protest against the state emergency bill.

Burhanuddin is not the first attorney general to reject Komnas HAM’s investigation results and recommendation that an ad hoc human rights tribunal be held to uphold justice. Previous attorney generals under different post-reform presidents were all reluctant to launch a formal investigation into the acts of atrocity.

On Monday, however, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed Burhanuddin to show “concrete progress” in settling past human rights abuses. In his speech at the opening of the Attorney General’s Office working meeting at the State Palace, Jokowi also asked the law enforcement agency to cooperate with, among other stakeholders, Komnas HAM.

Jokowi did not specifically make a reference to the Semanggi tragedies. Neither did he explicitly order the AGO to follow up Komnas HAM’s findings related to the two incidents.

Previously, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, Jokowi reaffirmed the government’s commitment to settling past human rights abuses in a wise and dignified manner, which apparently refers to settlement through a truth and reconciliation commission. The government is preparing a draft bill as a legal umbrella for the commission.

In 2004, during the term of Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia legislated such a law, emulating South Africa, but later the Constitutional Court revoked it as it deemed the law created legal uncertainty. With many in the political elites still resisting settlement of past human rights violations, chances are it will be difficult to win the House of Representatives’ approval for the new draft of the truth and reconciliation commission bill.

In fact, most parties that control legislative seats have persistently refuted Komnas HAM’s findings of past crimes against humanity, except for the atrocities in then-East Timor in 1999, the Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984 and the Wasior incident in Papua in 2001. But all military and police officers standing trial for the three serious crimes were acquitted.

The historical burden has been passed on to the current government, but there is no excuse for Jokowi to turn down the responsibility to ensure justice is served in numerous human rights abuse cases plaguing this nation.

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