Following the rise of democracy in Indonesia back in 1998, the Indonesians have developed a vast vocabulary regarding politics and political reforms. Press freedom, accountability, and transparency are some of the firsts. The gender equality and freedom of expression are some of those which came much later. The political and institutional reform spanned from 20 years ago and still running, and President Joko Widodo is seemed to be looking for the final breakthrough: human rights protection.
Since 2015, the Joko Widodo’s administration has granted numerous amnesty, abolishments and pardons for many Papuans who were detained in the name of separatism and rebel movements. This is a part of the administration’s commitment to release all the political inmates near the end of its reign. Jokowi stated back in 2015 that Papua was ‘a start’. There were 90 of Papuan political inmates three years ago, and as this article was being written, there are seven left of them. One of the most memorable names is Filep Karma, who was released in 2015. He was imprisoned for rising the Morning Star flag.
Answering the criticism from international society, the Jokowi administration bears the burden from all that remained since the regime of Suharto, who were notorious for his questionable practice when it comes to human rights. During the era of the next succeeding three presidents, there were no giant leap of progress made regarding justice for the inmates. If any, the progress made was relatively slower than what the world demanded. The advancement of human rights in Indonesia the last four years might have overtaken all the effort made in the previous 16 years.
It is notable that the parliament is struggling to catch up with Jokowi’s pace in legitimizing the pardons. It is also worth noting that there has been only minor coverage of international media regarding these good news from West Papua and beyond.
Besides giving various forms of amnesties and pardons, the president also pleaded the commitment to ease the strict ruling of police authorities in making arrests. Jokowi believes that non-violent demonstrations, no matter how harsh their political aspirations might be, should never send any citizen to jail. All in all, Jokowi’s effort to clean the name of the detained Papuans is a positive signal for human rights and world peace. It is worth our patience to see his further follow-ups in South Maluku, and other places around Indonesia.
Source :
NN, 2016. Retrieved from: https://indoprogress .com/2016/10/nasib-tahanan-politik-papua-dan-maluku-selatan/ , 2018
NN, 2018. Retrieved from: https://news.detik .com/berita/3340694/jokowi-pembangunan-di-papua-harus-perhatikan-nilai-nilai-ham , 2018
NN, 2015. Retrieved from: https://lampung.antaranews .com/berita/281454/jokowi-grasi-tapol-papua-hentikan-stigma-konflik , 2018
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