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)