The Polynesian Panthers met Roger Fowler in the early 1970s when Ponsonby was home to the largest urban Pacific population in Aotearoa.

He helped establish the Ponsonby People’s Union for Survival and ran several much needed community focused programmes like a food co-op, tenant’s rights advice and support.

He was a gifted community organiser deeply committed to social justice. He had a wide field of vision enabling him to see injustice in Aotearoa and injustice overseas are interconnected.

He brought so much light into the world and into the lives of many many people who came within his orbit locally and globally including ours.

He lived his life so others could have theirs.

Manuia lou malaga Roger. Our sincere condolences and aroha to Lyn and the Fowler whanau.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A Marshall Islands lawmaker has called on Pacific legislatures to establish and strengthen their national human rights commissions to help address the region’s nuclear testing legacy.

“Our people in the Marshall Islands carry voices of our lives that are shaped by this nuclear legacy,” Senator David Anitok said during the second day of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures (APIL) general assembly in Saipan this week.

“Decades later, our people still endure many consequences, such as cancer, displacement, environmental contamination, and the Micronesian families seeking safety and care abroad. Recent studies and lived experience [have shown] what our elders have always known-the harm is deeper, broader, and longer lasting than what the world once believed.”

Anitok said that once established, these human rights commissions must be independent, inclusive, and empowered to tackle not only the nuclear testing legacy but also issues of injustice, displacement, environmental degradation, and governance.

“Let’s stand together and build a migration network of human rights institutions that will protect our people, our lands, our oceans, our cultures, our heritages, and future generations,” he said.

“Furthermore, we call upon all of you to engage more actively with international human rights mechanisms. Together, it will help shape a future broadened in human rights, peace, and dignity.”

To demonstrate the Marshall Islands’ leadership on human rights, Anitok noted that the country has been elected to the UN Human Rights Council twice under President Dr Hilda Heine — an honour shared in the Pacific only once each by Australia and Tahiti.

Pohnpei Senator Shelten Neth echoed Anitok’s call, demanding justice for the Pacific’s nuclear testing victims.

“Enough is enough. Let’s stop talking the talk and let’s put our efforts together — united we stand and walk the talk.

“Spreading of the nuclear waste is not only confined to the Marshall Islands, and I’m a living witness. I can talk about this from the scientific research already completed, but many don’t want to release it to the general public.

“The contamination is spreading fast. [It’s in] Guam already, and the other nations that are closer to the RMI,” Neth said.

He then urged the United States to accept full responsibility for its nuclear testing programme in the Pacific.

“I [want to tell] Uncle Sam to honestly attend to the accountability of their wrongdoing. Inhuman, unethical, unorthodox, what you did to RMI. The nuclear testing is an injustice!” Neth declared.

Anitok and Neth’s remarks followed a presentation by Diego Valadares Vasconcelos Neto, human rights officer for Micronesia under the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who discussed how UN human rights mechanisms can support economic development, health, and welfare in the region.

Neto underscored the UN’s 80-year partnership with the Pacific and its continuing commitment to peace, human rights, and sustainable development in the wake of the Second World War and the nuclear era.

He highlighted key human rights relevant to the Pacific context:

• Right to development — Economic progress must go beyond GDP growth to include social, cultural, and political inclusion;
• Right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment — Ensuring access to information, public participation, and justice in environmental matters; and
• Political and civil rights — Upholding participation in governance, freedom of expression and association, equality, and self-determination.

Based in Pohnpei and representing OHCHR’s regional office in Suva, Fiji, Neto outlined UN tools available to assist Pacific legislatures, including the Universal Periodic Review, special procedures (such as thematic experts on water, sanitation, and climate justice), and treaty bodies monitoring state compliance with human rights conventions.

He also urged Pacific parliaments to form permanent human rights committees, ratify more international treaties, and strengthen legislative oversight on human rights implementation.

Neto concluded by citing ongoing UN collaboration in the Marshall Islands-particularly in addressing the human rights impacts of nuclear testing and climate change-and expressed hope for continued dialogue between Pacific lawmakers and the UN Human Rights Office.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji’s Women and Children’s Minister Lynda Tabuya says Pacific island countries need to “strengthen our laws” on online harassment.

Tabuya spoke to RNZ Pacific on the sidelines of the Pacific Women in Power forum taking place in Auckland this week.

She said the issue that she was dealing with — which is allegations of a sex and drug scandal between her and former cabinet minister Aseri Radrodro — was currently with the police.

“[Police] are investigating it,” she said.

“And it just so happens that a person who was causing this harassment online lives in Sydney,” she said.

She said she was able to get the assistance of Australia’s online safety watchdog to issue the notice to the person to take down the content — images — because it is a crime in Australia.

“If you put up content that is or appears to be the person, so then the person [who published it] needs to take the content down otherwise they can face prosecution,” she said.

‘Grateful for swift action’
“That was the process I followed and I’m grateful to the Safety Commissioner of Australia for the swift action.”

However, she said the situation she found herself in was not exclusive to her.

“It’s me today, it could be someone else tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be a minister or public figure.

“But if you have women in Fiji or across the Pacific who are facing this, and they’re being attacked — especially for populations where there are more people outside of the country than in [the] country.

Tabuya said therefore there was a need for strong policies, not just in Fiji, but across the region.

“You get more attacks from people who live overseas. Women MPs need to reach out to those countries where those people are attacking them live because the laws are much stronger.

“But it’s also a lesson for us within to strengthen our laws so that we can stand up against online bullying.

“The world is unfair and being a woman in politics, we face a lot of unfairness and injustices. But I think it also makes us so much more determined to stand up and be heard,” she added.

Meanwhile, Tabuya is currently the subject of an inquiry by her political party following the sex and drug allegation, the outcome of which has yet to be released.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

When the Polynesian Panthers (PPP) activist group began calling for an apology for the Dawn Raids two years ago, we went into the process with eyes wide open. Government lobbyists seldom get everything they ask for, but our intent was honest and real and fuelled by our Panther legacy and love for the people.

We believe that the apology was, and is, a necessary step towards the healing and restoration of trust and relationships between the Pacific peoples and families who were adversely affected by government actions during the Dawn Raids and the Aotearoa New Zealand government.

The prime minister’s emotional ritual entry into Auckland’s Great Hall and her address to Pacific people and communities assembled there last Sunday drastically relived the shameful and unjust treatment of Pacific peoples by successive governments during the Dawn Raids era of the 1970s, when police, hunting for immigrant overstayers and armed with dogs and batons, would burst into the homes of Pasifika families in the early morning hours.

These experiences and the subsequent deportations have created layers of intergenerational shame and trauma for Pacific victims and families in New Zealand and in the homelands. Studies have since shown that Pacific people made up only 30 percent of the overstayers, and yet almost 90 percent of the deportations.

The bulk of the migrants who overstayed their visas were from the US and UK. Since the apology was announced there has been a flood of victims’ stories –- stories no longer silenced by the guilt, shame and trauma of the raids and random checks.

What was missing from Sunday’s apology was a list of concrete actions the government will take in addressing the injustices. Instead, what was delivered were four “gestures”: some national and Pacific scholarships, and two other educational “gestures” that were really already in place — a publication about experiences of the Dawn Raids and the provision of resources to those schools already teaching about them.

Why has the government remained silent about setting up a legacy fund to allow education about the Dawn Raids — as requested in the petition signed by more than 7000 people and presented to Parliament by Josiah Tualamali’i and Benji Timu — to prevent future generations of New Zealanders from carrying out the same or similar racist actions?

Educate to Liberate
The only programme currently addressing this is an unfunded one run by the PPP for 50 years and more specifically for the past 10 years with their Educate to Liberate programmes in schools.

This was a far cry to what the Panthers were calling for.

In its submission for healing and restoration to the government in May, the Panthers were clear about what they wanted: an apology as well as 100 annual scholarships, and the overhaul of the current educational curriculum to include the compulsory teaching of racism, race relations, the Dawn Raids and Pacific Studies and the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi as the cornerstone of harmonious race relations in Aotearoa New Zealand, across all sectors, and assessed as “achieved standards” across appropriate non-history subjects.

If what we Panthers called for was granted and acted on, it would provide a clear message to all Pacific peoples and communities and to all New Zealanders that the government was ready for a truly liberating education and a world-leading pathway to the best race relations — Kiwi-style — in the world.

Alas, what the apology delivered was a watered-down version of what the Panthers called for. By perpetuating a myopic view of our long-term educational needs, the short term gestures outlined in the apology will not be enough to grow a truly liberated and informed youthful leadership for the future.

This oversight suggests a rocky future for the New Zealand government and the va (the social and sacred spaces of relationships) with Pacific peoples. The Polynesian Panther demands to annihilate racism in New Zealand might seem too revolutionary and drastic, and will probably fuel anti-Pacific sentiments, but is this really the absolute maximum that the government can do?

What we were given in this apology did little to dismantle systemic racism. Much more work needs to be done to decolonise and re-indigenise our education system. Why is the teaching of the Dawn Raids only optional and not compulsory? The Panthers platform of peaceful resistance against racism, the celebration of mana Pasifika and a liberating education is as relevant now as it was in the era of the Dawn Raids.

If the changes the Panthers have fought for over the last 50 years don’t materialise, then we have no alternative but to — as Māori scholar and activist Ranginui Walker puts it — “ka whawhai tonu matou [we will continue the fight]”.

Dr Melani Anae is a foundation member of the Polynesian Panthers and an associate professor and director of research at the Centre for Pacific Studies, Te Wananga o Waipapa, University of Auckland. Her books include The Platform: The Radical Legacy of the Polynesian Panthers (2020), Polynesian Panthers: Pacific Protest and Affirmative Action in Aotearoa NZ 1971–1981 (2015), and Polynesian Panthers (2006). This article first appeared in The Guardian and has been republished here with the author’s permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Dawn Raid apology
The Panthers’ golden jubilee couldn’t be more forthcoming, given an announcement made this week of a formal government apology for the 1970s Dawn Raids.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the time had come for an apology for a Labour Party immigration policy that targeted Pasifika people who had overstayed their visas by mere fact of their ethnicity.

“To this day Pacific communities face prejudices and stereotypes… an apology can never reduce what happened, or undo the decades of disadvantage experienced as a result, but it can contribute to healing for Pacific peoples,” she said.

Ardern was joined at the theatrette lecturn by Pacific Peoples Minister ‘Aupito Toeolesulusulu Tofae Su’a William Sio, who wiped away tears while sharing his own personal story of being raided as a teenager.

“I’m quite emotional… I’m trying to control my emotions today,” he said.

His parents had only just bought a home, taken as an achievement for the family, when a year or two later they’d been woken up to a police officer flashing a torch in their eyes.

“To have somebody knocking at the door in the early hours of the morning with a flashlight in your face, disrespecting the owner of the home, with an Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth,” ‘Aupito recounted.

“The memories are etched in my memory of my father being helpless.

“I don’t think there is any Pacific family who was not impacted on by the events of the Dawn Raids, and there is a strong moral imperative to acknowledge those past actions were wrong. Through an apology, they recognise those actions were unacceptable under the universal declaration of human rights, and are absolutely intolerable within today’s human rights protections.

“Come for the ceremony,” ‘Aupito said, welcoming the Panthers to the government apology.

Ardern added “[the Panthers] will probably remind us to ‘educate to liberate’.”

The Prime Minister will make her formal government apology for the Dawn Raids on June 26 at the Auckland Town Hall, 50 years on from the start of the revolution against racial injustices against Pasifika in Aotearoa.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A co-founder of the Polynesian Panthers says the government should allow overstayers to remain in New Zealand after it formally apologises for the Dawn Raids later this month.

An emotional Minister for Pacific Peoples, ‘Aupito William Sio, also revealed today harrowing details of his own family’s subjection to the notorious police raids of the 1970s.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday acknowledged the racist policies of National and Labour governments that targeted overstayers by their Pacific ethnicity, despite those of European descent making up the majority of illegal immigrants at that time.

Ardern will apologise on behalf of the state at a commemoration event in the Auckland Town Hall on June 26.

But social Justice advocate and co-founder of Polynesian Panthers Will ‘Ilolahia says it is not enough for the government to belatedly apologise and that any so-called compensation for the injustice should be paid by opening up pathways to residency for people now in similar circumstances.

“There has been terror in our society that money can’t pay for,” he said. “What is more beneficial for our people in society is pathways to residency for the present overstayers here.

“We’ve got overstayers here whose children are head boys and head girls. We’re got overstayers here those children have the potential to represent our country, but they can’t because they have no papers.

Qualification for citizen
“But the fact is they pay tax and surely that is enough qualification to be a citizen of New Zealand… We’re only talking about 10,000 people here.”

The Polynesian Panthers was formed in June 1971 to campaign for equality, justice and indigenous rights.

Another of its co-founders, Manase Lua, told Morning Report that something more meaningful then just words needed to be offered if justice was to be truly served.

The Pasifika leader, whose parents were targeted in the Dawn Raids, said residency would provide a just and fair settlement of past grievances, so that others would not experience a similar trauma and sense of worthlessness as his own family did in the mid-1970s.

“Compensation is the wrong word and that just sparks division among our communities,” he said.

“We have not sought compensation, you cannot compensate my family, my dad’s already passed away. He was a dawn raider who came here and contributed towards this country, paid tax all his life and never got into trouble with the law, he came here illegal but he wasn’t a criminal – he came here to seek a better life.”

The Minister for Pacific Peoples, ‘Aupito William Sio, revealed his own family was subjected to a dawn raid, describing the helplessness felt at the time by his father and the screams of terror of family members.

‘A bang in the early hours’
“We had just bought a house a year or two before and my parents were quite proud owners, putting roots into New Zealand and then to receive a bang in the early hours of the morning,” he told Morning Report.

“We were all awakened because of the noise, there was a man standing there with a flash light in my father’s eye, my mother clutching him so he doesn’t do anything that might hurt the police because it was his home. He felt there was a great deal of disrespect shown… to be treated like that – we were treated like animals.”

He said the apology would help raise up a mirror to New Zealand society and show how racism had inflicted hurt and trauma on a people who had simply responded to the call to fill labour gaps and wanted to live dignified lives.

Talking openly about the raids after an acknowledgement of injustice by government would hopefully help young Pacific people see their place in society as one hard fought and of value.

“I hope that it would empower them. I hope it gives them a sense of confidence that they are valued as human beings, that their heritage as peoples of the Pacific is something to be held tightly and to be treasured and I hope that this gives them a better understanding of what their grandparents and parents have endured and the sacrifices that were made, ‘Aupito said.

“That they stand on the shoulders of those giants and that they should be proud, not ashamed and recognise Pacific peoples have continued to provide a strong and positive contribution to the fabric of Aotearoa.”

He said Ardern and her cabinet would make decisions regarding what practical actions should accompany the apology.

Green call for residency
The Green Party’s spokesperson for Pacific people, Teanau Tuiono, echoed the calls for residency. He told RNZ Morning Report the government apology was significant and a start, but needed to be backed by substantive action, which should include educating people on the raids and offering legal pathways to contemporary overstayers.

“They came here for exactly the same reasons that our parents and our grandparents came here in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and the ’80s and the important thing also to remember here is that they are also essential workers and they have helped carry us through the pandemic,” he said.

“For me it’s really important to see what has happened in the past in particular in the damn raids within the wider trajectory of history of Pacific peoples within Aotearoa.”

National leader Judith Collins also backed the government apology. She told RNZ Morning Report that it was a sad time in New Zealand history and that anything beyond an apology was up to the prime minister.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Australia is facing condemnation from National and Green Party MPs over the deportation of a 15-year-old boy to New Zealand.

Little detail has been made public about the teen other than that he is being held in a quarantine facility and is receiving support from Oranga Tamariki.

The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has asked for more details.

“I do want to go back and look at the circumstances under which this deportation happened, because we do want to make sure particularly when we are looking at young people that is being dealt with appropriately, regardless of the circumstances of their deportation,” she said.

National’s foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee wanted to know more details of the case but said on the face of it the deportation sounded “pretty appalling”.

“If the young child has family support here that is stronger than in Australia that might be understandable, but if it is just a case of ‘here is an offender, we want him out’ and so he is off on the next plane to New Zealand, that is a different matter,” he said.

Actions ‘put alliance in jeopardy’
Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said the deportation was both outrageous and heartbreaking.

Ghahraman said Australia’s actions had put the trans-Tasman alliance in jeopardy.

“They need to know they are now damaging their relationship with us, that being a traditional ally and trading partner doesn’t mean that we will continue to be an ally and partner to them as they treat us with absolute disdain in this way.”

Ghahraman told RNZ Morning Report Australia was “absolutely an outlier” in deporting the teenager.

“It’s not something that nations who do have a rule of law and a commitment to human rights are doing.

“It is time for all what we call like-minded nations to recognise that Australia is actually behaving like a rogue nation, as we call countries who very consistently flout human rights laws, and raise this in our international forums, have our allies join together with us to condemn this and put pressure on Australia to start behaving like a good global citizen.”

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said it could not comment on individual cases but in a statement it said its government takes it responsibility to protect the community seriously.

Visa cancellation conditions
“A non-citizen’s visa must be cancelled if they are serving a full-time term of imprisonment for an offence committed in Australia and they have, at any time, been sentenced to a period of 12 months or more imprisonment, regardless of their age or nationality.”

It said the department approached visa cancellation of minors with a high degree of caution and consultation.

“The Department complies with its legal obligations in circumstances where the removal of a minor is considered, including those under the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” it said.

Co-ordinator of the Iwi n Aus advocacy group Filipa Payne said this was the youngest deportation case she had heard of, but was not the first time Australia has detained a teenager for deportation.

“I do know of people who have been in detention centre in Australia since they were 17.

“Currently there is a boy there that is 20 years old and he has been in detention for two-and-a-half years,” she said.

Payne said deportees experienced trauma and abuse while awaiting deportation, without any human rights.

She said she was very concerned about the teenager’s mental wellbeing, given that this was an overwhelming situation for a young person.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Michael Andrew

An exhibition about the infamous Dawn Raids” in the 1970s has opened in South Auckland, providing a window into a painful chapter of New Zealand’s history.

Called Educate to Liberate, the exhibition showcases art projects, memorabilia and photographs of a time when the police were racial profiling and harassing Pacific Islanders in a government-approved campaign.

Curator Pauline Smith told Pacific Media Watch the exhibition raises awareness and invites people to come forward to share their stories.

WATCH TAGATA PASIFIKA: Polynesian Panthers on the Dawn Raids

“It gives people permission to talk about it. It’s still very painful and shameful for a lot of people,” she said.

The Dawn Raids were part of a police and immigration crackdown on illegal “overstayers” in the 1970s. Pacific Islanders were specifically targeted while overstayers of European origin were overlooked.

-Partners-

Police entered homes in the early hours, demanding to see passports and proof of residency. They often physically removed residents for deportation.

Smith said the raids created a lot of shame among Pacific people, many of whom are reluctant to talk about it due to social stigma.

However, some have opened up about their experiences.

South Island raids
“We had this girl in Invercargill who had a story about how they were dawn raided and the uncle was escorted on to the plane by police, so they looked like criminals.”

Social services then came and put her brother and sister in state care.

“She said her brother never recovered properly.”

Educate to Liberate was exhibited in the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Niho o te Taniwha in Invercargill last year after the release of Smith’s award-winning children’s book, Dawn Raids.

Co-curator Ari Edgecombe of the Southland Museum said there were many sad stories of the Invercargill Dawn Raids, despite a common misconception they were not carried out in the South Island.

“That’s one of the reasons why we’re asking people to share their voice if they want to,” he said.

“We just figured that this might be the time for healing.”

Polynesian Panthers
The exhibition’s Auckland opening in Fresh Gallery Ōtara last weekend featured talks from Tigilau Ness, Will ‘Ilolahia and Reverend Alec Toleafoa of the Polynesian Panthers, an activist group formed in the 1970s in response to the raids and police discrimination.

The Polynesian Panthers were formed to resist police discrimination. Image: Michael Andrew/PMW

Pacific people were being “systematically targeted” for random street checks in a police initiative called Operation Pot Black.

The Panthers distributed a legal pamphlet to Pacific communities allowing people to know their rights when being harassed by police. A copy of the pamphlet is on display at the exhibition.

They also carried out their own dawn raids on the houses of North Shore MP George Gair and the Minister of Immigration, Bill Birch, turning up at 3am with loudspeakers and spotlights and demanding to see their passports.

The police raids stopped shortly after.

Former chair of the Panthers Will ‘Ilolahia said he and other members of the group served prison sentences for their struggles with the police.

“Some of us were feeling so strong about it that we were prepared to go and do time.”

Institutional racism
A “change consultant” now, ‘Ilolahia and other Panther members visit schools and talk to students about the need to stand up for what is right.

While he said that there have been improvements in the treatment of Pacific people, institutional racism still exists in New Zealand.

“Racism is still here, basically because the system is monocultural in it’s outlook.”

He said there was a need for all New Zealanders to start recognising themselves as migrants.

“Aotearoa is a country of migrants. We’re all migrants.”

“But we’ve got a pretty good place here. That’s why we fought for it.”

The Educate to Liberate exhibition opened at the Fresh Gallery Ōtara on April 6 and runs until May 25.

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.

A replica of a 1970s living room in a Pacific family home. Image: Michael Andrew/PMW

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Sheany in Jakarta

The National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, has called on the government to do more to protect women’s rights, particularly by enacting a long-overdue bill on the elimination of sexual violence.

The commission also said that current response to and handling of cases of violence against women in Indonesia was still too slow.

“There are still a number of issues that the government must pay attention to, in order to make sure that women’s rights in Indonesia are protected,” Komnas Perempuan chairwoman Azriana told reporters in Jakarta.

Komnas Perempuan’s annual report revealed that there were nearly 350,000 cases of violence against women in 2017 – a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

The report, which was published a day before International Women’s Day, also criticised the government for its slow prevention and handling mechanisms.

“We are not moving forward with our justice system … There are even no educational efforts to minimise the harmful effect of [cultural] norms that can lead to sexual violence,” Azriana said.

In Indonesia, cases of sexual violence are handled in accordance with the criminal code, the Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence, the Law on Child Protection and the Law on Human Trafficking.

Legal vacuum
These laws, however, do not cover all types violence, leaving its victims in legal vacuum.

“Many women who are no longer children [in the eyes of the law] are also victims of sexual violence, but they are not protected. The types of violence also evolve,” Azriana said.

For example, femicide – the killing of a woman or girl on account of her gender – is not traditionally categorised as sexual violence.

“This is one of the reasons why the bill on the elimination of sexual violence must be passed quickly,” Azriana said, adding that Komnas Perempuan and several other organisations have suggested the inclusion of several other types of sexual violence, which are not yet recognised by the law, leaving many victims helpless.

Sheany is a journalist with the Jakarta Globe.

• More Indonesian stories

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Sheany in Jakarta

With its official launch in the country set for today, Amnesty International Indonesia has emphasised the need for the government to step up focus on human rights issues and warned that neglecting human right violations can impede the country’s growth.

Speaking at a press conference in Menteng, Central Jakarta, the chairman of the board for Amnesty International Indonesia, Todung Mulya Lubis, said that despite progress in democracy, political life and the economy, Indonesia still needed to pay more attention to human rights issues.

“There’s still plenty that must be done to resolve past human rights violations […] Indonesia won’t have smooth progress if those remain unresolved, it will always obstruct the way,” Todung said.

The London-based organisation hopes to push Indonesia to be a global player in upholding human rights with its local chapter.

“Amnesty International Indonesia wants to urge Indonesia to take a global role in the human rights movement. That’s one of our dreams,” said Monica Tanuhandaru, one of the board members.

She emphasised that economic development in Asia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia would be “meaningless without justice of human rights.”

-Partners-

However, as the world bears witness to changing political dynamics across the globe, it is no longer solely the role of the government to ensure protection of human rights. Rather, it should be the product of a collective act from all members of society.

“[The] state is becoming weaker and weaker. Efforts to uphold and protect human rights must be done by civil society, but this doesn’t mean that we deny the existence of the state,” Todung said.

Uniting all movements
Amnesty International Indonesia hopes to “unite all human rights movements that are present in Indonesia,” especially as it aims to urge the government to resolve human rights violations.

For decades, the Indonesian government has provided little clarity on how it will address past human rights violations, including violations allegedly committed in 1965 and 1998, as well as those resulting from conflicts in Papua, West Papua and Timor-Leste.

Promises that these violations will be duly addressed was popular among candidates during the country’s last presidential campaigns, but real commitments to human rights from the current administration seem to have been overridden by priorities on other aspects, such as the economy and infrastructure development.

Sidarto Danusubroto, a member of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), said that telling the truth in Indonesia was “not a simple process” and would likely require a long time.

While the government has programmes for human rights, it was facing “economic issues” that must be resolved, he said.

“I’m afraid that if the government also has to resolve past human rights violations, current programmes for the economy will weaken,” Sidarto said.

Countries like South Africa and Chile, Sidarto said, had “built their memories of human rights” through museums.

‘Dark past’
He reflected on the importance of these countries being able “to admit their dark past without the need to hide,” and expressed his hopes that Indonesia would eventually get there.

“I hope, one day, we’ll get there – where we don’t have to be ashamed to speak of our dark past,” Sidarto said.

Amnesty International Indonesia will launch its #JoinForces initiative on December 7, coinciding with the 517th Kamisan – a silent protest in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta – as a form of solidarity to the protesters who have been demanding that the Indonesian government solve past cases of human rights abuses.

This had been initiated by friends and family members of 1998 student activist victims every Thursday afternoon for the past 10 years.

The organisation will also host simultaneous events across Indonesia between today and December 10, including in Bandung (West Java), Solo (Central Java) and Makassar (South Sulawesi).

The initiative is focused on combating growing “scapegoat” politics and the rise of negative populism that the organisation said had “undermined the basic rights of minority groups.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz