Minister of Human Rights Natalius Pigai has sought a budget increase from the current Rp64 billion (US$4 million) to Rp20 trillion (US$1.2 billion) that will be used to establish an international class human rights university, laboratory and hospital.
“Those human right institutions will be led by Indonesians with world class reputation in human rights. Each of them will be the one and only institution in the world,“ Pigai spoke to Indonesia Business Post on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.
He added that the funds will also be used to prepare for human rights personnels in 78,000 villages throughout Indonesia.
As previously reported by CNBC Indonesia, Human rights minister Natalius Pigai has called for an increase in his ministry’s budget up to Rp 20 trillion as its current budget of only Rp 64 billion is not enough to realize President Prabowo Subianto’s vision in the field of human rights.
“So, the transition team should revamp the budget from only Rp64 billion to Rp20 trillion. Otherwise, the human rights vision of President Prabowo Subianto cannot be achieved,” Pigai said on on Tuesday.
He believes that President Prabowo has a specific reason for establishing the Ministry of Human Rights.
“Why would the President want to create a Ministry of Human Rights? It means there is something big to create,” he said.
Pigai suggested that believes that the vision, mission and strategy, as well as the budget for the Ministry of Human Rights, should be seen as a portrait of human rights development as a whole. According to him, such an ambition cannot be achieved with a small amoun of budget.
Founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), Dino Patti Djalal, said the request by Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai to have a ministerial budget increase from Rp64 billion to Rp20 billion is an absurd proposal that will not be granted by the President, the Finance Minister and the House of Representatives as he wants to waste the State Budget for obscure programs that will lead to corruption.
“Ministers should not make it difficult for the president and should maintain the credibility of their ministries. They should communicate first with their respective Coordinating Minister, the State Secretariat and the President’s Office before making such high-risk policy statements. Remember you are now a government official, not an activist anymore. Credibility is everything ,” Dino, who is also former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said as quoted on his X account.
Former Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Beka Ulung Hapsara, said the human rights minister and his deputy should develop realistic and priority programs that can be implemented over the next five years.
“Priority programs include recovery and rehabilitation programs for victims of gross human rights violations and development of strategies to resolve cases of human rights violations in a fair and dignified manner,” Beka Ulung said.
“Other program is strengthening the human rights curriculum for the police, military and government officials so that their human rights perspective will increase,” he added.
The Ministry of Human Rights is the result of a split in nomenclature from an institution previously named the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Besides the Ministry of Human Rights, President Prabowo also created the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Institution and the Ministry of Law.
