2) Logistics issues impact voting in Papua, 1,200 polling stations reschedule voting
3) Security ensured during 2024 election in Papua, police says
4) Clashes injure dozens in Central Papua during Indonesian election
5) For Asmat people, voting an exercise in hope
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1) ‘Winter is coming’: activists’ fears as Prabowo Subianto likely wins Indonesia election
Former son-in-law of late dictator Suharto was discharged from military over alleged abuses dating back to 1980s
The presumed election victory of Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto – a former army general with a history of alleged involvement in torture and disappearances – marks a dark chapter in the country’s history, activists have warned, while vowing not to give up their fight for justice.
Prabowo, 72, a former special commander under the Suharto dictatorship, is the apparent winner of Indonesia’s presidential election after unofficial counts gave him a strong lead. On Wednesday night he told supporters that his win would be a “victory for all Indonesians”.
The results have provoked fear among activists, however, that accountability for past atrocities will fade even further under Prabowo, and that his future government will have little regard for human rights.
Prabowo, a former son-in-law of Suharto, was a longtime commander in the Kopassus special forces, but was discharged from the military after Kopassus soldiers kidnapped and tortured political activists in 1998.
Of 22 activists kidnapped that year, 13 are still missing. Prabowo always denied wrongdoing and has never been charged in relation to the allegations, though several of his men were tried and convicted. Prabowo was previously banned from entering the US.
Prabowo is also accused of involvement in rights abuses in Papua and Timor-Leste, including a 1983 massacre in which hundreds of people, most of them men, were killed in the Timorese village of Kraras. He has denied the allegations.
Muhammad Isnur, head of the Legal Aid Institute Foundation of Indonesia (YLBHI), said the election of Prabowo may be “too painful” for the families of those who disappeared in 1998, who are still fighting for justice.
“The result is as we predicted. But we are still disappointed,” he said.
Prabowo had maintained a lead in pre-election surveys after rebranding himself as a cuddly grandpa-like figure and securing the tacit support of the outgoing president, Joko Widodo, whose son ran alongside Prabowo for the vice-presidency. The incumbent president, who is known as Jokowi, was accused of unfairly boosting Prabowo’s campaign in order to safeguard his legacy and establish a dynasty.
“Too many intricate enabling conditions and manipulations have shown the involvement of Jokowi in the election. He had mobilised everything. That’s why the result is predictable,” said Muhammad. Jokowi’s office has denied that he sought to interfere in the election.
Academics, journalists and civil society groups should prepare for the worst, Muhammad said. “We need to be aware of every risk that could happen to us in the future and try to make a list of mitigations. We need to be prepared.”
In the runup to the election, Prabowo was the only presidential candidate who did not attend a press freedom event and did not respond to a questionnaire by Human Rights Watch on key rights issues facing Indonesians.
As results emerged on Wednesday, Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer living in exile in Australia, wrote on Twitter/X: “Many Indonesians are saying that they want to leave the country because Prabowo is winning – similar phenomenon to US citizens when Trump was winning. The big difference is … ours is out of FEAR.”
On Wednesday night, Prabowo told supporters “this win shall be a win for Indonesian people” as he promised to govern for everyone “whatever the ethnicity, whatever the province, whatever the religion, whatever their social background”.
Prabowo added that there was a need to wait for an official result from election authorities.
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https://en.jubi.id/logistics-issues-impact-voting-in-papua-1200-polling-stations-reschedule-voting/
Jayapura, Jubi – The Papua Police noted that out of the 15,213 polling stations (TPS) designated for the 2024 General Election in Papua, only 13,916 conducted voting on Wednesday (2/14/2024). As many as 1,297 stations were unable to conduct voting due to a logistic problem.
“The polling stations that did not conduct voting were spread across Papua Province (34), Central Papua Province (1,172), and the Mountainous Papua Province (91),” said Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Fakhiri on Wednesday.
He continued, in Central Papua, the stations that did not conduct voting included those in Puncak Jaya (697), Intan Jaya (383), and Paniai (92). In Mountainous Papua: in Tolikara (87) and Jayawijaya (4). Finally, in Papua: in Keerom (1), Mamberamo Raya (16), Sarmi (8), and Waropen (9).
Regarding rescheduled voting, Fakhiri stated that they were still awaiting the outcomes of meetings held by the General Election Commission (KPU) in each region. “I am still waiting for the results, but I hope that rescheduled voting can take place tomorrow [Thursday],” he said.
Fakhiri also declared that all polling stations in South Papua Province were observed to have conducted voting smoothly on Wednesday. “There are 1,770 poll stations in South Papua, and I hope the vote counting process there can proceed smoothly,” he added.
Concerning logistics, Fakhiri explained that the process was ongoing, with the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police ready to escort until completion.
“I have coordinated with the Commander of the XVII/Cenderawasih Military Region to assist with air transportation, and the police remain committed to securing the ballot boxes. I have also instructed police chiefs to report the situation at all times and maintain communication with the KPU and Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Agency),” he stated. (*)
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Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Fakhiri said there were no security disturbances, particularly armed conflicts, during the voting day of the 2024 General Election in Papua on Wednesday (2/14/2024).
“The voting process could proceed smoothly,” Fakhiri said.
He emphasized that his office had rejected the ‘noken’ system in the jurisdiction of the Papua Police. In the noken voting system, voters place their unmarked ballots into a noken carried by the candidate’s witness they have chosen, thus compromising the secrecy of the vote, or the voting results are determined by acclamation.
According to Fakhiri, the implementation of the noken system could trigger security disturbances, including armed conflicts. “As happened in Puncak Jaya Regency, disturbances occurred because of disputes over whose voice it belongs to. The same thing also happened in Paniai,” said Fakhiri.
He hoped that areas unable to conduct voting could promptly organize supplementary voting. “We also hope that the vote counting process at the district level can be completed soon so that all ballot boxes can be moved to the regency,” he added.
Fakhiri stated that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police were ready to guard the entire election process, including the return of ballot boxes from polling stations to the district/city General Election Commission (KPU). “Hopefully, any protests about the results can be addressed according to the existing mechanisms,” he said.
He expressed gratitude to the community for maintaining security and order during the 2024 Election. “I will certainly encourage the election organizers and security personnel to remain enthusiastic in carrying out the tasks entrusted by the state to fulfill all these responsibilities,” he concluded. (*)
JAKARTA: At least 62 supporters of legislative candidates were injured in clashes at nine locations in Puncak Jaya, Central Papua, during Wednesday's General Election.
Puncak Jaya Police said clashes between supporters wielding various weapons like arrows, knives, slingshots, and machetes occurred in Wonwi, Dokome, Yaimo, Pagaleme, Mulia, Yambi, Irimuli, Muara, and Illu.
"The first incident occurred in Wonwi at 10 am local time, stemming from a dispute over votes for their candidates," Assistant Police Commissioner Kuswara stated in a statement.
The authorities successfully intervened to ensure the voting process continued safely, with injured individuals receiving treatment at the hospital.
Additionally, local media reported chaos at 13 polling stations in Bima, Nusa Tenggara Barat, where several individuals vandalised and set fire to equipment after vote counting.– BERNAMA
Earlier, people from the district, nicknamed the "City of a Thousand Boards," elected their leaders through the Noken system, or a consensus conducted by indigenous elders based on local customary values, traditions, culture, and wisdom. The noken was replaced by the ballot box on Election Day, February 14, 2024.
However, the indigenous people and migrants in Asmat were enthusiastic about coming to polling stations (TPS) to cast their vote. Several polling stations were located in the Bujang traditional house in Asuwetsy village, Agats, Asmat district.
Inside the rectangular traditional house, five polling stations were set up to serve 1,675 voters. To uphold the principle of direct, general, free, secret, honest, and fair polling, the polling stations were separated by partitions.
At 6:30 a.m. local time on February 14, the Samat indigenous people who were eligible to vote and were registered in the permanent voter list (DPT) flocked to the traditional house located near the estuary.
People arriving at the TPS at Bujang House were full of enthusiasm and excitement. Some of them were even game to watch the activities at the TPS under the hot sun while waiting for their turn to vote in the once-in-five-year election.
As they waited for their name to be called out by officers of the election organizing team (KPPS), the residents sat patiently in front of Bujang House.
A display of sample ballots on the walls, the list of election candidates' names, their sequence numbers, the political parties supporting them, and information about the presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs also vied for the residents' attention.
The voters scrutinized the names on display before entering the voting booth to make their choice.
Meanwhile, the presidential and vice presidential sample ballot pasted on the wall was made particularly large.
Residents looked closely at the photos of the number 1 candidate pair Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar, number 2 pair Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka, and number 3 pair Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD before making their choice.
People's hope
For the people of Asmat and Papua in general, the election was a long-awaited ritual of democracy.
On voting day, they cast their votes, pinning their hopes on their preferred candidates, especially the president and vice president.
Robi, 45, who belongs to the Asmat tribe and has participated in the election several times, said that almost all people in the district have high hopes from the candidates, especially those vying to be the head of state.
Health, education, people's prosperity, decent living, and clean water are the Asmat tribe's main hopes, he expounded.
People from Asmat district are not demanding much. They dream of being able to enjoy their daily lives, just like people from other provinces.
While waiting for a call from the KPPS team, Robi said that he had the presidential candidate pair he would vote for in mind, but he did not disclose the pair's identity.
He expressed the hope that the next president will protect all children of the nation and pay more attention to the people in the Land of Papua.
His hopes have been further raised on account of two legislative candidates from his hometown running in the 2024 elections. Robi and the other residents are also expecting that the two candidates will fight for the Asmat people's aspirations if they win.
An elder belonging to the Asmat customary consultative body, Nicolaus Ndepi, said that the next president and vice president must not just be smart and capable, but must be polite in speech and have a loving heart.
Ndepi said that figures with such characteristics would find favor with the Asmat people.
He also wished that the next government would form a Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.
According to him, if such a ministry is formed, several problems related to customary affairs and traditions in the country could be resolved quickly.
"All kinds of dreams and aspirations can be born from tradition. It must be known that customs go first, then religion, and then the government," he said.
Noken system
Ndepi informed that the Noken system was once prevalent in the society, but it is no longer practiced.
For the local community, the system was a deliberation process. To build consensus, indigenous elders would gather and discuss the potential candidates.
The elders never forced someone to vote for a particular candidate, as the locals prioritized democracy.
However, the locals have not rejected the national electoral system or the one-person one-vote system.
He said that the Noken system was abandoned following the Constitutional Court's decision, which was based on a mature and in-depth study.
Related news: Papua to dispense with noken system in upcoming elections
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6) Should Indonesians feel guilt over Timor-Leste when voting for president? Commentary
by David Hutt 2024.02.08
The bloody and rapacious occupation of East Timor by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999, when nearly a quarter of the population died of famine and violence, is not the responsibility of the current Indonesian government.
But Prabowo Subianto has been widely accused of some of the atrocities that led to the carnage, and most surveys show the Indonesian people are set to elect him as their new president this month.
What are we supposed to make of this?
Ought we say “for shame” on the hundreds of millions of people who will vote for an alleged war criminal who, until very recently, was said to have been blacklisted by Washington?
Should this election force Indonesia into a historical reckoning with its past, tearing open the wounds that many had been happy to cauterize after the Suharto dictatorship fell in 1998??
At home, Prabowo’s brutality is better known for the reactionary repression of the protests that helped topple Suharto, once his father-in-law.
The army threw him out in 1998 after it found he was implicated in the kidnapping of nine activists – 13 are still missing – a claim Prabowo vehemently denied.
In 2014, though, he admitted to media group Al Jazeera that he participated in the abductions, and added that he was just following orders. But no charges have ever been filed against him nor have the allegations against him been tried in court.
Many Indonesians apparently do not know that their likely future premier (and their defense minister since 2019) had been accused of bloodying his hands decades earlier – in East Timor.
The Indonesian media has been silent on this rather lengthy period of Prabowo’s life.
Prabowo served as commander of Kopassandha, Indonesia’s special forces that later became known as Kopassus, from 1995.
A post-imperial truth and reconciliation commission found that the Indonesian armed forces (and Kopassus, especially) were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 24-year occupation of Timor-Leste.
Indeed, because of this, Prabowo was banned from entering the United States until recently, after he became defense minister.
When The Jakarta Post reminded readers in 2013 of Prabowo’s alleged atrocities, he replied with a letter claiming it was all an “unproven allegation”.
Since the 1990s, he has claimed that what happened in Timor-Leste was an “internal conflict.” And he says he wasn’t even in Timor-Leste in 1999 when Indonesian troops brutally massacred hundreds of East Timorese to subvert the successful United Nations referendum on the country’s independence.
(In fact, it’s more accurate to say that the Indonesian troops massacred hundreds in revenge for the East Timorese bravery in proclaiming their own liberty.)
Even if Prabowo wasn’t present in 1999, subsequent investigations found that the events of that year weren’t an aberration.
The Joint Indonesia/Timor-Leste Commission for Truth and Friendship argued that the crimes of 1999 “cannot be understood in isolation from the longer period of conflict.” It also stated that “the nature of the violence that occurred in 1999 was shaped by previous patterns of conflict.”
According to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, Prabowo’s Kopassandha/ Kopassus was responsible for the largest number of human rights violations.
While Jakarta is quick to evoke imperialism and colonialism in rebuffing global policies it finds unsuitable – it called the European Union’s new environmental rules “regulatory imperialism” – no Indonesian president has ever apologized to the East Timorese.
The closest one came was after a bilateral truth commission report said that Indonesian soldiers, police and civil authorities engaged in an “organized campaign of violence” against East Timorese independence supporters.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president at the time, could only muster: “We convey our deep regret over what happened” and expressed “remorse”.
And with the solipsism that characterizes Indonesian statements on this matter, he added: “Let us not forget those who were victimized during this dark period in our past.”
He was referring to the Indonesians killed during dictator Suharto’s regime.
Indonesians alive during Suharto’s regime never voted for him.
Yet, because of the atrocities committed in Timor-Leste, Indonesians suffered international condemnation in the 1990s, particularly from Western democracies. It’s for others to say whether their response to this criticism elicited soul-searching or merely more rally-around-the-flag anger at Indonesia’s foreign critics.
Many brave Indonesians did, however, oppose their country’s imperialist venture at the time and assisted the pro-independence East Timorese diaspora in Jakarta.
And the median age of Indonesians now is 29.4 years, so half the population was barely in school by the time the troops left Timor-Leste.
Historical wounds should be allowed to heal without being constantly picked at. But there must be some distinction between putting the past to rest and resurrecting it by electing a leader who was widely accused of being responsible for those past atrocities.
From the 1970s until the 1990s, the Indonesian public had no real say over what their government and military did. However, today they do have a say, and they’re using it to potentially elect an alleged war criminal.
Clearly, the fact that Prabowo has been repeatedly accused of such horrors in Timor-Leste does not seem to bother most voters.
Indonesia needs “a truth-telling process,” Pat Walsh, an adviser to the East Timor truth commissions, wrote in December.
Because it doesn’t have such a process, “a person with demonstrated disregard for the rule of law, of both the domestic and international kind, and regarded by many as a war criminal, may be elected Indonesia’s next president,” Walsh, who’s also a co-founder of Inside Indonesia magazine, added.
The country next door is watching, and Walsh didn’t mince words about what a Prabowo presidency would mean for the East Timorese.
“Neither is it fair for East Timorese victims of crimes against humanity to have to accommodate their tormentor as leader of the important neighbor their country needs to work with,” he wrote in January.
But the Timorese can take some comfort in knowing that as Indonesia seems to be hurtling backwards towards autocracy (“an opposition-free country in the hands of a bloodstained general from the bad old days. So much for reformasi,” as the Economist put it), Timor-Leste is safely Southeast Asia’s best democracy.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and Southeast Asia columnist at The Diplomat. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, CEIAS or BenarNews.
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