Academic urges abolition of gathering permit
Academic urges abolition of gathering permit
SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): A noted political scientist from
Gadjah Mada University has charged that permit requirements have
allowed one political faction to dominate Indonesia's political
arena.
Riswandha Imawan told The Jakarta Post that perpetuating
permit requirements for public gatherings allows those in power
to prohibit any discourse that they dislike or could threaten
their political legitimacy.
"Here the politics of permits can change into a tool to
control the activities of citizens," he said on Friday.
The government has made it unlawful to hold public gatherings
of more than five persons without a permit.
At least 26 events have been broken up this year for not
fulfilling these requirements, while another five requests for
permits have been rejected by the government.
The government announced on Thursday that it had formed a
working group headed by Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman to
review the permit requirements. The review team has until the end
of July to hand in its report.
In Riswandha's analysis, permits have allowed the big
political powers to discriminate against others in the political
system.
He argued that such political bias runs against the ideas
embedded in Article 27 of the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees
the right of all citizens to have equal positions in law and
government.
Riswandha pointed to several recent cases, such as the split
in the PDI's East Java executive board.
"The rival PDI board in East Java was allowed to freely
consolidate while the legitimate one was not," he said.
Permit requirements, he added, serves to obfuscate the
question of who has the authority to reject or issue a permit.
There is no hierarchical permit framework which people can
follow, he said.
He recounted the recent restraints on speaking placed on
Abdurrachman Wahid, head of the rural-based Nadhlatul Ulama, a
mass Islamic organization, and PDI chairperson Megawati
Soekarnoputri, by local officials.
"If national figures are prohibited by local authorities at
the regency level, then where is the clarity of the structural
and working mechanism of the political system that we have thus
far built?"
Riswandha believes these subjective restraints could also
become a hindrance to the evolution of Indonesia into a great
nation.
Nations such as the United States and Japan have elevated
themselves to success because they allow the free exchange of
thoughts and ideas.
"Do we need permission to be smart?" he asked.
Riswandha called for the government to be receptive towards
the needs of its people and discard their fear.(har/mds)