Ina Parlina, Jakarta – "I want to make sure that whoever carried out this attack for whatever motive is punished," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono boasted to antigraft activist Tama S. Langkun in hospital last year.
He ordered top police generals, including then Jakarta Police chief Timur Pradopo (now the National Police chief) to immediately bring Tama's attackers to justice. "I strongly encourage you to keep going despite this setback. The struggle must go on," the President said while holding Tama's hand.
A group of armed men assaulted the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) official at 4:30 a.m. on July 8 last year, several days after he filed a report with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on the questionably large bank accounts of several senior police officers. He sustained severe head injuries after being hit with iron rods.
The office of Tempo weekly newsmagazine, which ran a cover story on the suspicious accounts, was also attacked with Molotov cocktails.
Anticorruption activists have made repeated attempts, including through the media, to remind the President of his assurances that he would find those responsible for the acts of violence against Tama and the magazine. But one year on, the police, including Timur, insist the investigation was still ongoing.
"A year ago today I was attacked. Has the President forgotten his promise to me?" Tama said at a rally close to Merdeka Palace, the President's official residence. He was accompanied by protestors carrying large photographs of Yudhoyono visiting Tama in hospital. The protestors were members of ICW, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and students.
Dressed in black, they also carried black posters reading "SBY, where is your promise?", "The government is sleeping", "Solve this act of violence against an activist" and "The government failed to protect a citizen".
The one-hour rally ended with organizers issuing an open letter to the President that was received by a representative from the Merdeka Palace security detail. The protestors also handed over a black wreath as a symbol of their disappointment at the government's failure to address acts of violence against human rights activists.
Yudhoyono has not been shy about promising justice to victims of violence. A few months after winning the country's first direct presidential elections in 2004, he emotionally swore to the widow of slain right activist Munir that he would never give those responsible for his murder even the smallest chance to escape justice. Munir was poisoned and died on a Garuda flight to Amsterdam.
Several military generals were implicated in the murder, but so far, only a Garuda pilot – widely seen as a scapegoat – has been punished for the crime.