Jakarta – Four months into his term, it seems that President Prabowo Subianto is thrusting hard his merciful image by pushing his administration's plan to pardon thousands of prisoners across the country.
The plan was first announced last December and the preparation for the amnesty has been intensifying in the past weeks, with various ministries deliberating its mechanism with the House of Representatives.
Details are not yet finalized, the ministers said, but we have seen some glimpses of how the plan would work.
For example, the number of prisoners who would potentially receive the amnesty. In December, it was said that the plan would target around 44,000 prisoners. But that number dropped to 19,000 this week, with Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas citing that further verification had resulted in the reduction.
Most of the prisoners in the latest list were drug offenders, with nearly eight out of 10 being drug users sentenced to imprisonment rather than rehabilitation.
Some hundreds of others were people convicted of defamation, a violation regulated by the draconian Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law. Potentially included among them were Papuans who voiced their discontent over injustices and Jakarta's militaristic approach to safeguarding the country's easternmost territory.
Recent discussions hinted at the government opening prison doors for members of Papuan rebel groups, which authorities officially refer to as armed criminal groups (KKB). Various parties argued that granting amnesty for them may help deescalate conflict across Papua, as long as the government ensures those involved in gross human rights violations are excluded.
The government has argued that the amnesty plan may help ease the overcrowding problem characterizing most prisons across the archipelago. According to government data in June of last year, there were 265,000 prisoners incarcerated in Indonesian penitentiaries, which only have an initial capacity of 140,000.
The overcrowding has lead to various human rights violations, with convicts often lacking proper space, putting their health and safety at risk. In most places, prisoners also outnumber the guards, often leading to incidents such as riots and jail breaks as happened in Salemba detention center in East Jakarta in November of last year.
In some cases, these problems can intertwine with each other and trigger a bigger calamity leading to loss of lives.
A fire breaking out at the Tangerang Penitentiary in Banten in 2021 should serve as a stark reminder, as the incident claimed the lives of 49 prisoners. A later investigation found that the prison was understaffed and officials on duty did not follow the procedures during an emergency, such as unlocking the gates to allow the prisoners to escape the penitentiary's burning wing.
Despite the pluses, the amnesty should be planned carefully, just to prevent recidivists and those convicted of "extraordinary" crimes like corruption from receiving amnesty they do not deserve.
Such a concern was raised by a lawmaker, who feared that the convicts would commit other criminal offenses once they are released. The politician argued that the pardoned prisoners should be reintegrated well into society by being given the opportunity to work and build a proper new life.
One of the suggestions raised by Prabowo's immigration and corrections minister to prevent criminal relapse was to enlist some of the pardoned convicts into the military reserves (Komcad), which would, at the very least, instill discipline among the released prisoners potentially hindering them from committing any further crimes.
But the plan has met opposition from human rights activists, who argue that the Komcad is voluntary in the first place and only people with clean criminal records can participate.
We still have time until the planned announcement of the amnesty plan ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday in late March. The government should work day and night with other stakeholders, such as human rights groups, to prepare for the program.
Otherwise, the amnesty plan would only backfire and hurt Prabowo's merciful image, further jeopardizing the public's trust in the government.
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2025/02/22/pardon-not-for-all.htm