Experts question relevance of state commissions<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government and House of Representatives need to review
\nthe necessity of some state commissions, whose existence only
\nserves to further burden the taxpayer instead of supporting the
\nestablishment of good governance, a constitutional law expert
\nsays.<\/p>\n
Bintan R. Saragih, the dean of the Pelita Harapan University's
\nSchool of Law, told a discussion here on Friday that many of the
\ncommissions had been established to satisfy strong public demand
\nfollowing the fall of former president Soeharto in 1998.<\/p>\n
\"The government and the House set up the commissions in
\nresponse to the demand from the public, who had been oppressed
\nfor years. Unfortunately, some of them do not fit the
\nrequirements for state commissions, whose functions should be to
\nsupport the government,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Currently, Indonesia has more than a dozen such commissions.
\nThey include the powerful Corruption Eradication Commission
\n(KPK), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the
\nNational Ombudsman Commission, the National Commission on Women
\n(Komnas Perempuan), the National Commission on Children
\nProtection (Komnas PA), the National Law Commission (KHN) and the
\nIndonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).<\/p>\n
Bintan said a state commission must be capable of supporting
\nthe government in executing major policies.<\/p>\n
\"Some state commissions should actually not have been set up
\nas their functions are not the implementation of government
\npolicies,\" he said, referring to the National Commission on
\nWomen, National Commission on Children, the National law
\nCommission and the National Ombudsman Commission.<\/p>\n
Bintan suggested that the work of the women's, children's and
\nombudsman commissions would be better performed by non-
\ngovernmental organizations, which play an important role in the
\ncountry's political system but not the governmental system.<\/p>\n
The National Law Commission, he said, should be merged with
\nthe Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' National Law Oversight
\nBoard (BPHN) as both had the same functions.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, he said, the Corruption Eradication
\nCommission, Indonesian Broadcasting Commission and the National
\nCommission on Human Rights were essential for supporting the
\ngovernment in combating corruption, and in developing and
\npromoting broadcasting and human rights respectively.<\/p>\n
Bintan called on the government and the House not to be
\noverzealous in establishing state commissions in the future.<\/p>\n
\"The state cannot finance them all. They will not be able to
\nwork without sufficient funding. Besides, the government must
\nstop acting simultaneously as both policy-maker and executor. Its
\njob should only be making policy, let the people do the rest,\"
\nBintan said.<\/p>\n
Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, the chairman of the rights
\ncommission, and Antonius Sudjata, who chairs the ombudsman
\ncommission, said that their respective commissions were denied
\nadequate support by the government in terms of both funding and
\npolitical commitment.<\/p>\n
\"To date there has been consistent disagreement about the
\nfollow-up action to be taken as regards the investigation and
\nprosecution of gross rights violations, which adversely affects
\nthe handling of these cases,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The relevant legislation grants the rights commission the
\npower to investigate with a view to prosecution gross human
\nrights violation cases. The results of the investigations must be
\nforwarded to the Attorney General's Office.<\/p>\n
In many cases, the AGO has failed to proceed with or thwarted
\nprosecutions that have been recommended by the rights commission,
\nespecially in cases where the suspects are members of the
\nmilitary and the police.<\/p>\n
Antonius Sudjata, who chairs the ombudsman commission, said
\nthat his institution was not being provided with sufficient
\nfunding for its day-to-day operations.<\/p>",
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