As seen on the Jakarta Post

The alliance between the state and corporations was the main contributor to human rights violations during agrarian or natural resource conflicts throughout 2013″ a discussion has heard.

There were 278 violent agrarian or natural resource conflicts throughout the archipelago in 2013 with the state responsible for 54 percent of the human rights violations that took place during the conflicts and corporations 36 percent” according to data from the Community and Ecological-based Society for Legal Reform (HuMa)” as presented during the discussion held on Tuesday at the Newseum building in Central Jakarta.

The conflicts covered 2.4 million hectares of land. The highest number took place in East Kalimantan with 72 cases” Central Java with 39 and North Sumatra with 19.

Social observer Benny Susetyo said the data showed that national leaders continued to submit themselves to the interests of corporations rather than serving and protecting the interests and sovereignity of the people.

“Elected state leaders have caused the people to lose more and more of their own sovereignty by taking away more of their participatory rights in decision-making in policies that have implications for their communities and environment”” Benny said in the discussion.

“Therefore” we need leaders who have a strong and firm commitment to protecting the interests of the people. Candidates for leadership who only provide empty words during campaigns do not deserve to be elected”” he added.

The dream of having future leaders who would be willing to fight for the interests of the people” however” seems as far away as ever as political party campaigns still featurs free dangdut concerts and politicians shouting their respective party’s slogans rather than introducing concrete planned programs for the 2014-2019 administration” said political analyst Ray Rangkuti.

Ray said that none of the current presidential candidates had offered anything concrete in the form of ideas and programs. “The 2014 general election will be the most empty democratic process of the reform era. We had disputes over human-rights ideas in 1999″ democracy consolidation in 2004 and good governance issues in 2009. What have we had in 2014? Nothing but popularity polls that have no connection whatsoever to the issues that impact people in the regions”” he said.

“In the context of agrarian and natural resource conflicts” there has not been a single presidential candidate who has come directly to the regions to put forth their ideas on how to resolve them. All of them are more interested in becoming popular through advertisements rather than communicating with the people directly”” he added.

Due to the apparent ignorance of political candidates about the interests of the people” HuMa executive director Andiko said that a movement had been initiated by his organization to provide access for the people involved in various agrarian and natural resource conflicts in the regions to address their issues directly. 

“We have set up a website in which people in the regions can send their videos” which can easily be captured with cheap handphones that are common in rural areas. In the videos” they can address their issues and aspirations”” Andiko said.

“If political leaders really care about the people’s interests” they can visit our website to watch the videos and use the aspirations contained in them to build a platform for their political programs during their campaigns”” he added.

Original Article –National leaders should side with people in conflicts: Analysts