Commission at odds over rights amandments

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite an assurance that human rights articles would not be scrapped from the amended Constitution, members of the Constitutional Commission are still at odds over whether to include rights articles in a revision draft that would be presented for public review on April 26.

In a plenary meeting on Friday, members of the commission were baffled by the two conflicting drafts distributed to them. One of the drafts still includes Article 28, which guarantees basic human rights, while the second omits all articles on human rights.

Commission deputy chairman Ishak Latuconsina, who presided the meeting, told the meeting that commission members should concentrate on the draft without human rights articles as it was the valid one.

However, a number of commission members raised an objection to the second draft, saying the draft drawn up by a team headed by commission deputy chairman Albert Hasibuan left human rights articles in tact.

"I need to know which draft is valid, because as far as I am concerned we have agreed that the articles on human rights will be maintained," commission member Krisna Harahap said.

He insisted human rights articles should be included in the amended Constitution as this would guarantee the protection of citizens' basic rights.

Responding to the objection, Ishak insisted the draft without the human rights articles was the valid one. "I think it is beyond Pak Albert Hasibuan's authority to put the human rights articles back in," he said.

Earlier, Albert said a synchronizing team had been tasked to rectify an earlier draft, which had excluded articles on human rights.

He also assured the meeting that the proposal to sideline the human rights articles would not be agreed upon, as it would go against the general trend to raise awareness of human rights.

Another commission member Abdul Rasyid Thalib proposed in the plenary meeting that the draft revision should not set out details of human rights. "The list would be long if all basic rights were considered to be human rights," he said.

A number of non-governmental organizations said earlier that the planned omission of the human rights articles would provide leeway for a strong government to prey upon its citizens' basic rights.

The 31-strong commission is expected to complete its job of harmonizing all constitutional amendments by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) since 1999 by May 1, before presenting the results to the assembly's Working Committee on May 6.

Data from the commission secretariat shows that only 14 members attended the session on Friday.