Jakarta – The Indonesian Civil Society Coalition for International Human Rights Advocacy has called on the public not to vote for a presidential and vice presidential candidate pair who will perpetuate a political dynasty and damage ethics in the 2024 presidential election.
The statement was issued by the coalition as punishment for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo based on two alternative reports submitted to the United Nations (UN).
The first report, titled The Dark Side of Development in the Jokowi Era, was sent to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Committee on January 15.
The second report was sent to the UN Center for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) on February 5 and titled Two Modes of Repression (Sectarian Populism and the Pretext of Development).
"Punish Joko Widodo and his coalition socially by not voting for a presidential and vice presidential candidate pair who will only give rise to a political dynasty, damage ethics, and will make this country again become an authoritarian state and with an exploitative agenda that damages the environment", said Indonesian Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Executive Director Daniel Awigra in a press release on Sunday February 11.
The coalition, explained Awigra, is suing Widodo and urging him to resign from his position as president because he has failed to carry out his mandate to run the government fairly for all.
The coalition concluded that Widodo has failed in carrying out the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill civil and political rights (SIPOL), as well as economic, social and cultural rights (ecosob).
The Widodo administration, continued Awigra, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic and afterwards, made a number of market-oriented policies that actually damaged democracy, fertilised corruption, exploited and extracted natural resources for the benefit a small number of elite, and increasingly prevented vulnerable groups from obtaining their rights.
The coalition said the Widodo regime had committed many human rights violations and systematically committed political corruption, including electoral crimes by utilising the situation during the pandemic and elections to encourage an opportunistic exploitative authoritarian agenda.
This included enacting the Omnibus Law on Job Creation that facilitates the granting of investment permits by ignoring the carrying capacity of the environment and the protection of community rights, revising the Mineral and Coal Mining Law (Minerba) that provides many incentives for mining companies by ignoring the environmental damage that they cause and national strategic projects (PSN) that encourage the acceleration of environmental destruction.
"Moreover, late 2023 and early 2024 was marked by President Jokowi's political behavior which damaged democracy by the abuse of power for the benefit of [certain] groups and his family", said Awigra.
"Starting from the case of serious violations of the code of ethics by Constitutional Court chief justice [Widodo's brother-in-law Usman Anwar] who made a banal ruling that allowed his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to become a vice presidential candidate, to the gross ethical violations by the General Election Commission (KPU) chairperson in the nomination of the Prabowo [Subianto]-Gibran [electoral ticket], which as a whole could damage the integrity of the elections", he said. (ryh/wiw)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "HRWG: Jangan Pilih Capres yang Lahirkan Politik Dinasti dan Tuna Etika". The titles of the two reports submitted to the UN were taken from a separate CNN article.]
