Commission at odds over rights amandments

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.