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)