The 2024 Electoral Year in Indonesia has concluded. Indonesian societies exercised their political rights by voting for their preferred political candidates for president, vice president, and legislative members at the national and regional levels. Many hopes develop throughout the election process since it is another critical milestone in determining where Indonesia is headed as a huge country once the new president and vice president are formally elected.
Economic improvement remains one of the most potential hopes the residents have in mind after the election. In contrast, lately, the rising price of rice has become uncontrollable, creating an impediment for them to buy and make a long line in many places, only to satiate their daily consumption. The price is currently allegedly fluctuating due to an indistinct political circumstance.
On the other spectrum, millennial and Gen-Z groups certainly dominate the number of voters in Indonesia. Their votes in the current electoral year exemplify their favor of Prabowo to be the President due to his steadfastness in tackling various issues to maintain the country’s security.
However, despite Prabowo’s alleged human rights violations in the past time, young people in the mentioned groups see human rights issues as unpopular. According to the survey by Indikator Politik Indonesia (the Indonesian Politics Indicator) in 2023 represented by Burhanuddin, human rights issues are necessarily insignificant among them due to their disconnection because they were not born in the periods of human rights violations, particularly in 1998.
Human Rights in Indonesia from Political Coverage
On the political coverage regarding human rights, constitutionally, Indonesia respects human rights, as evidenced by Munafrizal Manan, Commissioner of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM RI). He underscores Article 28I paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Article 37 of the Decree of the People’s Consultative Assembly No. XVII/MPR/1998, and Article 4 of Law No. 39 of 1999 mention 7 non-derogable rights, namely: the right to life, the right not to be tortured, the right to freedom of thought and conscience., the right to religion, the right not to be enslaved, the right to be recognized as a person before the law, and the right not to be prosecuted based on retroactive laws.
Furthermore, Indonesia has legalized Law Number 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights as well as ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) through Law Number 12 of 2005, underlining the human rights points regarding civil and political rights.
In conjunct with the current 2024 electoral year, a question arises about the presidential and vice president candidates’ willingness to address human rights issues. The Conversation exemplifies that three presidential candidates have negative track records of human rights accomplishments.
The 2019 Jakarta Governor election discloses one of the 2024 presidential candidates, Anies Baswedan’s support for identical politics to discriminate against a minority religious group, as evidenced by the imprisonment of the former Jakarta Governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly called Ahok, a Chinese-Indonesian Christian descent. He was charged with religious blasphemy by allegedly misinterpreting one of the Quran’s verses in his governmental campaign in Kepulauan Seribu in 2016.
The other presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, is always questioned regarding the allegation of many human rights violations, particularly when serving as the military commander during Soeharto’s regime. BBC Indonesia highlights how he led a special task force to execute activists. It resulted in the death of 23 activists, while the other 13 remained missing until now, including the ones engaged in the 1998 reformation era. His comeback in politics, particularly establishing Partai Gerindra in 2009, made him a two-time presidential candidate in 2014 and 2019 despite the accusations of human rights violations. Hence, currently, he has been winning the presidential quick-count, enabling him to be the officially elected President of the Republic of Indonesia in the upcoming period.
Ganjar Pranowo, another presidential candidate stated that no human rights violator should be voted president of this country. However, the public linked him when he manifested human rights violations in Wadas, Central Java, in 2022. The Indonesian National Human Rights Commission disclosed the potential violations regarding the arrest of 67 local people in Wadas, protesting the development of a water dam, covering torture, the seizures of personal cellular phones, and creating terror among the societies who rejected the development plan. All were conducted by people in uniform, usually linked to the police and other apparatus.
In general, Indonesia faces a decline in the Human Rights Index. According to the Setara Institute’s research, the 2023 Index scored 3.2, a point decline from the 2022’s about 3.3. Some detrimental factors that affect the declining score can be highlighted by the inclining number of human rights violations, particularly cases of religious freedom, such as the closing of worshipping houses and restrictions of certain minority religious activities, added conflicts in Papua, the drafting of the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation that allegedly ignores the public participation, violations against journalists, and people criminalization based on the Electronic Information and Transaction Law.
The Future of Human Rights, Better or Worse?
Human rights are a milestone as a reflection of a country’s democratic life, which secures societies’ political, economic, and cultural life. As a critical benchmark in a country, human rights protect all human life aspects.
In the Indonesian context, politically, the 2024 Indonesian electoral year should be a pivotal point in improving the country’s developmental stages for its societies, including human rights. Moreover, Indonesia is supposed to play a significant role in enforcing better human rights implementation, especially after its appointment to be a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2024-2026. Nevertheless, this country hardly persists in unleashing the human rights work seeing various unsolved past as well as current human rights cases.
To see the current political situation in Indonesia requires a deep understanding since people need political certainty that will bring the country’s guarantee of human rights case accomplishment. It is crucial to view if the newly elected President along with the cabinet and legislatives are committed to enforcing human rights principles in their governance. In the end, only Indonesians with a good conscience may come with their awareness of seeing the ideal leader for the country with a proper track record of human rights, therefore it will implicate the country and its people’s human rights unconditionally.
