Muninggar Sri Saraswati – The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla has failed to satisfactorily uphold human rights as it has only implemented 56 of the 103 human rights programs it had proposed, a report by a human rights organization revealed on Monday.

Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute, said most of the programs that were implemented were already functioning in various areas, such as in the preparation and development of human rights eduction.

"The promise to set up a mechanism to settle past human rights cases through reconciliation has yet to materialize," the report said.

The report was the result of an evaluation of the government's Plan on National Human Rights Action 2004-2009 (Ranham) and the Middle- and Long-Term National Development Plan (RPJM).

Hendardi said that the country's position on human rights over the past five years had "significantly changed" from upholding the right to civil and political freedom to fulfilling economic, social and cultural rights.

The institute acknowledged that the government had managed to fulfill the action plan on economic, social and cultural rights following its policies on public health insurance (Jamkesmas), the allocation of 20 percent of the state budget to education, free education for elementary to high school students, the development of housing and financial assistance for the poor.

However, for civil and political rights, the government had only produced laws against racism and on witness protection.

The report also said the government had initiated limitations on freedom of expression and freedom to exercise religion and had institutionalized discrimination through the issuance of the Antipornography Law, the Information and Electronic Transaction Law, Education Legal Entities Law, Mineral and Coal Law as well as the Investment Law.

The institute likewise raised concerns that the country's record on human rights could worsen if the new government was led by figures "who are considered instigators of gross human rights violations."

Vice presidential candidates Wiranto and Prabowo Subianto, both retired generals, have been accused of being involved in a number of rights violations during the transition period following the collapse of the New Order government in 1998.

Yudhoyono, who is running for re-election, was also accused of involvement in human rights violations when he was chief of staff of the Jakarta Military Command, in relation to a fatal attack on a political party's office in July 1996.

The attack on Megawati Sukarnoputri's then Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters, which claimed dozens of lives, was believed to have been organized by the Suharto government to crush his political opponent.