Human Right Heroes

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 12/10/2010 10:25 AM | Editorial

Indonesia has recognized another human rights hero. It was announced on Wednesday that the prestigious Yap Thiam Hien award would be presented to Asmara Nababan, one of the first commissioners of the country’s human rights body.

He is no longer among us to accept the award. If he was he’d be peering at us through his glasses, and, with his usual humility, urging people to get serious and look for another nominee. Asmara, who last led the Demos research institute and the human rights NGO Kontras, succumbed to lung cancer on Oct. 28.
The most important thing for such a hero is how the legacy of his work and enthusiasm can spread across the country, if not the world.

On human rights, we look forward to the day when we no longer need such heroes. We would prefer learning from the best manager any day.



Every person recognized for defending the rights of his or her fellow humans to life and security is a nagging reminder of our past, which is full of stories of torture in various parts of the country — and of a fairly relaxed society that couldn’t care less. Dissidents, after all, probably had it coming to them.

The average citizen, i.e., a non-activist, would not describe Indonesia’s past as a dictatorship. “Normal” people had nothing to fear. “Only” those in the wrong, resource-rich places, those with the wrong views or those related to or associated in any way with those who held the wrong views needed to be afraid.

They were hunted down and isolated — without identities, means to earn a living or safe environments to meet with friends and relatives.

Asmara was among those who grabbed the opportunity provided by strongman Soeharto’s willingness to make Indonesia the second nation in Southeast Asia, after the Philippines, with a national rights commission.

This was a landmark in our history. The state recognized that human rights abuses were not just fabricated, isolated stories — and that the government and the people of Indonesia had to address the issue.

Most important, it was a major step in educating and reminding the people that independence did not mean that anyone in power could bully others into compliance - or replace our colonizers as human rights abusers.

Later we were proud that our neighbors followed suit, setting up their own human rights bodies and most recently, of the beginnings of a regional human rights commission.

It’s a pride mixed with hopelessness. Gritty, forever-energetic people like Asmara are so few and far between that a decade after the New Order, the struggle to end abuses cannot yet be ended.

Most evident is the unresolved murder of one of Kontras’ founders, Munir, in a case which our President repeatedly said should be resolved. There are countless others; but Munir was a diminutive, fearless man who went about comforting and encouraging people who had lost their loved ones while he constantly spoke up about the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens — only to face untimely death by poison himself.

Nowadays we see human rights defenders along with citizens working together for better recognition of citizens’ social, economic, cultural and political rights. But the skeletons in the closet will not go away, as long as they’re kept in the closet.