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Government to study report on FPI killings
Komnas HAM says four FPI men unlawfully killed
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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had ordered his aides to follow up on the National Human Rights Commission’s (Komnas HAM) recommendation of its investigation into a recent fatal incident between Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) members and the police.
The order came following the meeting between the President and Komnas HAM commissioners on Thursday, during which the commissioners handed a full report of their investigation to Jokowi, said Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD.
“After meeting the commissioners, he [Jokowi] talked to me, saying he hoped that all of the recommendations made by Komnas HAM will be followed up,” Mahfud said in a press conference on Thursday.
Last week, the rights body announced its findings of an incident in Kerawang, West Java, that claimed the lives of six FPI members. It found that two of the victims were killed during a shootout with the police, but the other four were found dead after being held in police custody, an indication of a human rights violation.
Komnas HAM recommended that the individuals responsible for the killings be prosecuted and called for further investigation into the possession of firearms allegedly used by the FPI members during the incident.
Read also: Police killing of FPI members unlawful: Komnas HAM
“We recommended [that the case] be brought to the criminal court in order to prove what we indicate as unlawful killings,” Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said in the same press conference. “Komnas HAM hopes for an accountable and transparent legal process that is open to the public.”
Thursday’s development marked another chapter in the relationship between the government and FPI amid an intensifying crackdown on the group after its leader, Rizieq Shihab, returned to the country and ended his self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.
The government has banned the group on the grounds that it had violated the 2017 Mass Organization Law for having a statute that contravenes the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, failed to renew its registration with the Law and Human Rights Ministry, engaged in vigilantism and had dozens of its members implicated in terrorism.
The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) then temporarily froze bank accounts related to the FPI and its affiliated groups, while National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis recently issued a circular banning the public from accessing, uploading or distributing content produced by the FPI on a website or social media.
Tempo magazine recently quoted an anonymous source who claimed the directive to disband the group, which was established not long after the fall of former president Soeharto, had come from Jokowi himself — particularly because of several crowd-pulling events that followed Rizieq’s return to Indonesia.
Read also: Government bans FPI activities
The FPI’s activities have been increasingly political after the 2014 presidential election and the bitterly contested 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. The group played instrumental role in mobilizing the masses in a series of rallies that culminated in the Dec. 2, 2016, rally at the National Monument in Jakarta, an event many observers said was a turning point for opposing political forces against the government.
Indonesia Political Review executive director Ujang Komarudin said that due to the sensitivity of the case, its handling would serve as a litmus test for the current government.
“If this case cannot be thoroughly investigated, the public’s trust in the government will collapse because the public will deem the government as unfair,” Ujang said, emphasizing that it was in Jokowi’s interest to ensure the case could be resolved in court despite the FPI’s longstanding stance as a government critic.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Firman Noor said that despite Jokowi’s order, the government had yet to show a serious commitment to holding the people responsible for the incident accountable.
“For me, if the is government serious, then it would immediately rotate high-ranking officials at the police because this is a human rights violation,” Firman said.
He added that the government’s handling of the case could be used as political fodder to attack the Jokowi administration.
