After four years, Jokowi still ‘has lots to do’ for human rights, graft fight

JOKOWI - JAKARTA. Four years after his election, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has yet to fulfill many of his promises on the issues of human rights and graft eradication.

Jokowi, who was sworn in as president on Oct. 20, 2014, after defeating former general Prabowo Subianto, did not consider the issue of human right a priority, according to the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

“His administration failed to accomplish most of its initial commitments about human rights,” Kontras commissioner Yati Andriyani told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

In its evaluation report, Kontras noted that Jokowi had failed to carry out most of his own 17 priority human rights programs.

Jokowi, it claimed, had yet to address the issues of extrajudicial killings, past human rights abuses and religious freedom. The remaining issues, including disability rights, had only been partially resolved, it added.

Contacted separately, Indonesia Corruption Watch’s political corruption division coordinator, Donald Fariz, echoes that sentiment with regard Jokowi’s antigraft drive.

Jokowi, he said, was not aggressive enough in reforming his bureaucracy by introducing e-budgeting and e-procurement, while many regional leaders have been charged with corruption by the nation’s antigraft body.  

“We have not seen a concrete agenda from the President to reform law enforcement agencies, such as the National Police or the Attorney General’s Office. These two institutions are very powerful, but there has yet to be an effective monitoring mechanism to prevent abuse,” Donald said.

Irma Suryani Chaniago, a spokesperson of Jokowi’s campaign team, rebuffed Donald’s claim regarding Jokowi’s lack of achievement in the graft fight, saying the fact that many politicians were arrested for graft under Jokowi showed that the President was allowing the KPK to work professionally.

She conceded, however, that the government had yet to make the issue of human rights a priority. “In the future, the issue of human rights violation should be made a priority, especially past human rights abuses.”