What’s next for the Indonesia’s stalled indigenous rights bill?

Fresh momentum on a long-delayed indigenous rights bill hit a snag last week when the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs, tasked by President Joko Widodo with leading a review of the draft legislation, rejected its basic rationale – that indigenous Indonesians need a law on their rights. “The passage of an indigenous rights bill is not yet a concrete necessity,” concluded home minister Tjahjo Kumolo in a letter to the State Secretariat. Tjahjo pointed to a series of ministerial regulations – 16 in all – that already pertain to Indonesia’s indigenous peoples. It is the same chaotic mix of rules that President Jokowi, as he is known, has pledged to simplify through the passage of a law. A subsequent letter from the home ministry clarified its objections were not over the bill’s premise, but its particulars. But for those pushing for greater recognition and protection of indigenous rights, the damage was done. “The response from the home ministry is bad news for indigenous Indonesians,” said Mohamed Arman, head of law and advocacy at AMAN, the main advocacy group for these communities. “It shows that the home ministry, which is the government liaison to the [parliamentary] commission in charge of the bill, may not believe in the urgent need to get it done.” Long time coming AMAN began work on the bill back in 2012, but it was only added to the parliament’s docket of priority legislation last year. “In fact, we’ve been waiting for a national bill for 70 years,”…

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