Assembly told to make decree on human rights

Assembly told to make decree on human rights

JAKARTA (JP): Observers called on factions at the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) yesterday not to dismiss hastily the
campaign to establish a human rights charter.

Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid and human rights campaigner
Marzuki Darusman said yesterday it would be ideal if an
Indonesian bill of rights was made into a powerful Assembly
decree.

"Human rights protection will be effective if its principles
are incorporated in a MPR decree," Abdurrahman, better known as
Gus Dur, told reporters yesterday.

Marzuki told The Jakarta Post yesterday that it would be
better if the principles were stipulated in an MPR decree. But he
added it was not necessary to establish a separate decree to
incorporate the human rights principles.

"It may also be included in the State Policy Guidelines," he
said, adding that the State Policy Guidelines, known by its
Indonesian acronym of GBHN, was also an MPR decree.

Abdurrahman and Marzuki were commenting on the recent
rejection by both Golkar and Armed Forces factions to deliberate
a document on human rights charter drawn up by the National
Defense and Security Affairs Council.

Deputy chairman of the Assembly's Golkar faction Agung Laksono
and Deputy Speaker of the Golkar faction at the House of
Representatives (DPR) Abdul Gafur recently said it was not
necessary to specifically establish a chapter for human rights
principles.

Chief of the Armed Forces faction at the House Hari Sabarno
said it was not necessary to adopt a specific decree on human
rights principles because they were already contained in the
state ideology Pancasila and several laws.

The council's secretary-general Lt. Gen. (ret) Soekarto said
last Tuesday that the charter on human rights, along with a draft
of the State Policy Guidelines that it drew up, was the
government's response to public aspirations for better rights
protection.

The 1,000 members of the Assembly will start deliberating the
State Policy Guidelines in the next few weeks. They will regroup
in March to endorse the guidelines and elect a president and vice
president.

Abdurrahman said legislators should not delay discussion on
the establishment of the principles in an MPR decree as it could
provoke people's anger and dissatisfaction.

"The only solution is to honestly put forward the people's
aspirations," he said.

Marzuki called on the other minority factions -- the United
Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
-- not to falter in fighting for the charter despite the dominant
Golkar and ABRI factions' rejection.

"They must continue their struggle for the deliberation of the
human rights principles," he said.

He was optimistic the MPR factions would eventually raise the
issue at the Assembly's meetings.

"It's only a matter of where to place the human rights
principles because both Golkar and ABRI MPR factions did not
object to the substance," he said.

The draft charter is made up of 33 articles plus an
introduction. If approved, it will be the Assembly's first
deliberation on human rights.

In 1966, the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly
prepared a draft human rights charter, but deliberation on the
document was later dropped because the body had to prioritize a
series of measures to restore order following the communist coup
attempt in 1965. (imn)