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Megawati takes a page from
Suharto
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Two of the world's largest
human-rights organizations say the government of
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri is filling
the country's jails once again with political prisoners,
only five years after all prisoners of conscience were
released with the ouster of former president Suharto.
In separate reports released on Thursday,
London-based Amnesty International and New York-based
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for the release all
political prisoners and the repeal of Suharto-era
legislation used to prosecute and imprison activists who
are merely engaged in peaceful political expression.
"Moves toward greater political freedoms and
respect for freedom of expression are being undermined
by the prosecution and imprisonment of peaceful
political, labor, independence and other activists,"
said Brad Adams, the director of HRW's Asia division.
"With less than one year to go before
Indonesia's first direct presidential elections, to be
locking up individuals who criticize the government is
an alarming development for the electoral process," he
added.
Since 1998, according to the two reports,
at least 46 people have been imprisoned for political
expression - 39 of them since Megawati became president
two years ago.
The increased repression,
according to the reports, is taking place behind a
veneer of a new democratic government and greater
freedoms than existed during the Suharto period. In many
ways, according to activists interviewed by the two
groups, that makes the trend more difficult to fight.
"Under Suharto, there were thousands of
political prisoners and everyone knew about it," said
defense lawyer Habib Rachman, who was interviewed by
HRW. "People would go to the prisons every day to visit
them out of solidarity. Now, no one knows about it and
they are forgotten."
Most human-rights concerns
are instead focused on the situation in rebellious Aceh
province, where the armed forces (TNI) launched what is
being described as a brutal counter-insurgency operation
in May. Although journalists - except those who have
been "embedded" with TNI forces - have been excluded
from the natural-gas-rich province, reports of hundreds
killed and scores detained, beaten and tortured have
leaked out in recent weeks amid growing concern among
both Indonesian and international human-rights groups.
But attention should also be paid to what is
happening to ordinary political activists who are being
prosecuted in Jakarta itself under provisions that still
exist in the country's criminal code that, for example,
punishes "insulting the president or vice president"
with up to six years' imprisonment. Other crimes under
the act include "sowing hate" against the government.
Since late 1992, according to the two groups, at
least 14 political activists have been sentenced to
prison and three others are facing trial under the law.
In most cases, the defendants have been arrested after
they participated in peaceful political
demonstrations.
"Repressive legislation used
under the authoritarian regime of former president
Suharto has no place in a country which claims to be set
on a path towards a fully fledged democracy," said
Ingrid Massage, who heads Amnesty's Asia and Pacific
Program.
Last October, Nanag and Muzakkir, two
young political activists, were found guilty by a
Jakarta court and sentenced to one year in prison after
expressing their dissatisfaction with the pace of
political reform by stamping on pictures of Megawati and
her vice president, Hamzah Haz.
Their treatment
provoked a major debate in the domestic media about the
implications of the prosecution. An investigation
launched by HRW, however, found that they were neither
the first nor the last to be prosecuted under the laws
that actually date from the colonial period.
This spring, for example, Ignatius Mahendra,
chairman of the Yogyakarta branch of the National
Democratic Students' League, and Yoyok Eko Widodo, a
member of the Street Buskers Union, were among the
latest to be imprisoned under charges of insulting the
executive. Each was sentenced to three years in prison
after being found guilty of burning portraits of the
president and vice president.
Last week,
Muhammed Nazar, a political activist in Aceh, was
sentenced to five years in prison for "spreading hatred
against the government" by participating in peaceful
pro-independence meetings this year.
"Draconian
colonial-era laws - which most Indonesians assumed had
been relegated to the dustbin of history - in the
Indonesian Criminal Code have been dredged up to
facilitate politically motivated prosecutions, and once
again are being used as a political tool to silence
dissent," the HRW report said. It added that the trend
was "particularly worrisome" in view of next year's
scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections.
"The repeal of these laws is long overdue,"
Amnesty's Massage said. "Any legal provisions that
criminalize peaceful political activities must be
repealed as soon as possible." She also called for
Megawati to commit herself publicly to cease all such
prosecutions which "call into question [the] commitment
to a pluralistic society based on respect for human
rights".
The HRW report, titled "A Return to the
New Order?", suggested that the prosecutions are related
in part to Megawati's weak political position. She took
office only after her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid,
resigned, and she has come to depend heavily on the TNI
as a major source of support, particularly given her
uneasy relationship with the Islamic parties in her
coalition government.
The military has used
Megawati's weakness to enhance its political clout
behind the scenes and promote new legislation that would
further entrench its role and power in policing and
other civilian functions. One proposed article would
permit the military to take action against any
activities deemed to constitute a threat to the nation's
sovereignty, or territorial integrity, without civilian
or even presidential oversight.
(Inter Press
Service)
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