Mahfud MD's Different Perspectives On Human Rights Violations

Deputy Chief Justice Mahfud MD (Wardhany Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD is considered to have misunderstood the statement made recently which stated that in the era of President Joko Widodo in office there were no violations of human rights (HAM).

On Thursday, December 12 yesterday, Mahfud in front of the media crew said that in the era of President Jokowi's leadership there was no issue of human rights violations. Instead of human rights violations, Mahfud said that there were only crimes and violations committed by individuals and the legal process was now underway.

The former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court asked the public not to equate crime with human rights violations. This is because, according to him, human rights violations are incidents committed by government officials in a planned manner, while crimes such as persecution include human rights violations that are not committed by the government.

Meanwhile, on Friday, December 13, Mahfud again issued a statement regarding human rights violations. At that time, at the Presidential Palace Complex, Mahfud was asked by reporters about the eviction of Tamansari residents, Bandung, West Java. It is suspected that the eviction violated human rights because the security forces committed repressive acts against the residents, including some of them children.

Instead of answering, Mahfud only said that the incident in Tamansari should not be made a fuss, even though law enforcement officers acted not according to standard operating procedures (SOP).

"Ah, never mind, don't make a fuss. You don't understand the meaning of human rights violations," he said before getting into his official car and leaving the Presidential Palace.

Capture the video screen of alleged security forces at Tamansari, Bandung (Photo: Instagram @tamansarimelawan)

Mahfud MD's misunderstanding about human rights violations

Mahfud's statement was later refuted by Komnas HAM. In fact, Komnas HAM Commissioner Choirul Anam told VOI that there was something wrong with Mahfud's understanding of human rights violations.

According to Choirul, during the Jokowi leadership era, there were no cases that were declared as gross human rights violations. However, currently there are several cases of violations that are in the process of being investigated by his party.

"Indeed, no one has formally declared a serious (human rights) violation. However, some are being processed," he said when contacted via text message, Monday, December 16.

Choirul then explained to us that human rights violations are divided into two. Some are heavy and classified as normal. Besides that, the way to solve it is different.

If the violation of human rights is serious, then the investigation conducted by Komnas HAM must be carried out based on Law Number 26 of 2000. As for human rights violations that are not serious, it is sufficient to use Law Number 39 of 1999.

Returning to the question of whether there were human rights violations or not, Choirul said that actually there were many human rights violations that had occurred during the recent period.

This, he said, was contained in Komnas HAM's year-end notes. "If there are many human rights violations, Komnas HAM's year-end records or other institutions show that," he said.

We also download Komnas HAM's 2018 end notes on their website. According to their records, in 2018 many complaints were submitted regarding human rights violations. One of the most frequent complaints is about agrarian conflict.

According to Komnas HAM records, throughout 2018 there were 52 cases related to land that were reported to them. Meanwhile, the rest were labor-related conflicts, with 40 cases and 12 cases related to eviction.

Not only that, Komnas HAM also answered Mahfud MD's claim regarding the absence of human rights violations when large demonstrations took place on 21-22 May. This demonstration occurred because students rejected the revision of the KPK Law and several other revisions to laws.

The demonstration that resulted in injuries resulting from repressive actions by the security forces was denied by Mahfud as a human rights violation. According to him, at that time the demonstration participants attacked the police.

Komnas HAM later denied Mahfud's claim. Choirul said what the police officers did during the demonstration was a form of human rights violation. "Komnas HAM said it was an excessive use of force," he concluded.