Vitorio Mantalean, Jakarta – The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has highlighted that human rights issues that do the rounds ahead of elections are never concrete or discussed in a substantive manner.
Komnas HAM Deputy Chairperson Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi said that up until now the human rights issue that come up in the lead up to elections are only used for political goals.
"Human rights issues only come up once every five years. It's also only to, let's say, to attack certain candidates, for example. So, there's no substance at all", said Tanthowi during a virtual discussion titled Elections that are human rights friendly, what are the requirements? on Wednesday July 4.
Tanthowi said that prospective legislative candidates (caleg) as well as prospective presidential and vice presidential candidates (capres-cawapres) are often trapped in a lot of jargon, such as the narratives of unity and sovereignty, without ever concretely touching on human rights issues.
Yet there are several human rights problems that need to be resolved such as agrarian reform, workers welfare and mining issues.
Komnas HAM is pushing for human rights issues not to just become an issue every five years, but to be discussed substantively by election participants, whether they be legislative or presidential candidates.
"For example how to implement and compile then promote welfare issues, housing, the environment, employment, education, healthcare, and other issues to constituents", said the former General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner.
Out of the three politicians touted as stepping forward as presidential candidates in 2024, the focus of attention on human rights issues has mostly been directed at Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) Chairperson Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo is a former commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) which oversaw the Rose Team (Tim Mawar). The Rose Team is alleged to have masterminded an operation to abduct and forcibly disappear scores of activists in 1997-1998.
On several occasions human rights issues have also been directed at the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of struggle (PDI-P) presidential candidate, Ganjar Pranowo, who is seen as giving a red carpet to corporations to exploit and evict local communities in the Kendeng cement factory case in 2015 and the Wades Village andesite mining case in 2022.
Meanwhile the presidential candidate backed by the National Democrats Party (Nasdem), former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, also has a questionable record related to the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, because he was seen as allowing racial, religious and ethnic issues (SARA) and intolerance against minority groups to take centre stage during the capital city's electoral contest.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "'Isu HAM Hanya Muncul 5 Tahun Sekali, Hanya untuk Menyerang Calon Tertentu'".]
