Bills to finish in four years

Bills to finish in four years

JAKARTA: The new government and the House of Representatives
are expected to finish deliberating bills on criminal code and
criminal code procedures in the next four years, a senior
official said on Friday.

Abdul Gani Abdullah, the legislation director at the Ministry
of Justice and Human Rights, said the deliberations would last
long given that the bill on criminal code consists of nearly 700
articles, and the bill on criminal code procedures over 100
articles.

"We will submit them in December. We must hurry up because we
want them to be deliberated during the next government's rule,"
he told reporters during a press conference.

Abdul Gani said Indonesia will have to wait for many years to
get the two bills revised if the House and the next government
fail to approve them into laws during their five-year tenure.

The current Criminal Code is a product of the Dutch ruler.

The bill on criminal code has sparked controversies over its
stipulations, which critics say have among other things,
interfered in private affairs, such as casual sex and oral sex.
-- JP