Widodo has been chastised in Indonesia for human rights breaches

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

President Joko Widodo and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin have been chastised by Indonesian students and rights groups for the violent police violence against students and human rights campaigners, particularly in Papua, as well as for ignoring prior human rights atrocities.

“During the two years that Joko Widodo and Ma'ruf Amin governed our country, the democratic situation in Indonesia deteriorated dramatically,” Rivanlee Anandar, deputy coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, said in a statement on Oct. 20.

 

On October 20, 2019, Widodo and Amin took office.
They are accused of allowing police involvement in human rights violations.
According to the National Commission on Human Rights, 744 such cases were reported in 2019, with 758 such reported in 2020.

 

Anandar criticised the harsh approach in Papua, the lack of adherence to international human rights instruments, and zero participation in the development of rules, citing the police crackdown on students conducting a peaceful demonstration in Tengerang, near Jakarta, as examples.
He went on to say that the violence in Papua continues and is becoming worse.

 

Widodo and Amin were also chastised by the National Commission on Human Rights for failing to follow through on their promise to settle earlier complaints of human rights violations.
According to Choirul Anam, the human rights commissioner, "not a single case has been settled."

The anti-communist massacres in 1965-66, which killed thousands of people, the violence in Trisaksi University and Semanggi in Jakarta in 1998-99, which killed dozens of students, the May riot in 1998, which targeted ethnic Chinese people, and the forced disappearance of activists in 1997-98 are among the cases.

 

In Jakarta and other locations, students staged a protest against the government's failings.

The leader of the Jakarta-based Association of Indonesian Catholic Intellectuals, Vincentius Hargo Mandirahardjo, said he admired the president and vice president for their devotion to democracy, but that things weren't perfect during their two years in power.

“We hope that democracy will be successfully implemented in the future rather than just talked about,” he told UCA News.

 

The overall human rights situation in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest country, has sparked international alarm.
Authorities in Papua continue to persecute anyone who participate in nonviolent political activities.