JAKARTA, RAKYAT NEWS – Amnesty International Indonesia has strongly criticized the recent proposal to name former President Soeharto a national hero, calling it a betrayal of the Reformasi movement and a disregard for the victims of human rights abuses under his regime.

The criticism follows a statement by Minister of State Secretary and Presidential Spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi, who said on Monday that he saw no issue with the proposal submitted by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Central Committee for the Study and Assessment of National Hero Titles (TP2GP).

“What’s the harm? We believe a presidential honor is reasonable,” he told the media.

In response, Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director, Usman Hamid, stated that Prasetyo’s remarks were historically inaccurate and insensitive. “The proposal to recognize Soeharto as a national hero undermines the Reformasi mandate, which demanded justice and accountability for serious human rights violations committed during his 32-year authoritarian rule,” Hamid said.

He emphasized that many victims and their families still await justice, decades after the alleged abuses. “To this day, victims of past atrocities have seen no resolution. If the state is sincere in its commitment to human rights, this proposal must be firmly rejected,” he added.

Hamid outlined a number of systemic abuses that took place during Soeharto’s leadership, including violent repression, media censorship, and widespread corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN). “Ignoring these facts and glorifying Soeharto is nothing short of historical revisionism,” he warned.

Amnesty International urged the government to prioritize investigations into numerous unresolved human rights cases already acknowledged by the state. These include the 1965-66 anti-communist massacres, the mysterious shootings of 1982-85, the Tanjung Priok massacre (1984), and the Talangsari incident (1989), among others.

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