Indonesia - June 2023

President Joko Widodo announced an unprecedented programme to pay reparations to victims of human rights abuses by the Indonesian state on 27 June, which could conceivably cover the over 500,000 killed and million jailed in twelve separate periods between 1965-2003. However, the programme is only open to victims who have been positively identified by the government, which Indonesia’s Human Rights Commissioner said numbers only 6,400. The Indonesian branch of Amnesty International welcomed the program as a positive step, but criticized it for offering only “token compensation” and failing to address the issue of holding the perpetrators of the abuses accountable.

Sources: Reuters, Amnesty International Indonesia

The Constitutional Court threw out a lawsuit brought by politicians from the ruling party on 15 June that sought to return Indonesia to a closed balloting system, a system where voters would be forced to vote only for a party, not individual candidates, which the country had abolished in 2008. All parties in parliament apart from the President Joke Widodo’s PDI-P opposed the goal of the lawsuit, arguing a return to a system that placed significant power in the hands of party bosses would have constituted a setback to Indonesian democracy. The petitioners, on the other hand, held that the current open-list system facilitates vote-buying. Concerns had been raised during the judicial process that the lawsuit was an attempt at delaying next year’s election.

Sources: Reuters, The Diplomat

Officials in Papua province told Reuters they believe an unknown amount of $337 million in funds sent to individual villages for locally-driven economic development projects are being used to fund and arm pro-independence rebels like the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). Local officials expressed concerns over the lack of oversight over the ‘Dana Desa’ programme launched in 2015, and cited the increasingly well-armed rebel movement, an increase in illegal weapons cases in the region, and the fund’s history of corruption allegations. National officials declined to comment on the story, local officials did not provide documentation for their claims, and a spokesman for the TPNPB denied the organisation was receiving siphoned village funds. Armed clashes between the TPNPB and security forces, as well as attacks on civilians on both sides, have increased significantly since 2018.

Sources: Reuters, ACLED, CNN Indonesia