Demos and responsibility

Demos and responsibility

I'm sure that many parties support and agree with the
editorial in Media Indonesia of July 30, 1998 titled Regulating
freedom. The concept of responsibility is integrated in freedom,
including the freedom of expression. This responsibility refers
to oneself, other people and one's community.

In this regard, allow me to suggest that the discussion on the
government regulation to replace Law (Perpu) No. 2/1998 to be
held at the House of Representatives should adopt the following
approach:

1. This Perpu is needed to ensure that organizers of
demonstrations will assume the responsibility to regulate
themselves. The responsibility to regulate oneself may be defined
as follows: (a) conducting demonstrations in an orderly manner
without harming the rights of other people/the community and
without violating prevailing laws; (b) should something uncalled
for occur, such as a riot, violence, destruction, looting and so
forth, the organizers must be held responsible and can therefore
be subjected to legal sanctions.

2. Security apparatuses (the police in particular) shall be
obligated to maintain the orderliness and security of the
demonstrations. In other words, organizers of demonstrations must
be protected by those maintaining security and order. Should
something uncalled for occur, the parties assigned to give
protection may also be subjected to legal sanctions.

In this way -- so I suggest -- Law No. 2/1998 should be
modified only with respect to the two assumptions referred to
above. This means that the enforcement of this law must be based
on these two assumptions.

My guess is that any rejection of Law No. 2/1998 would be a
reflection of a crisis of confidence in the government and in the
parties assigned to maintain security and order rather than the
rejection of the assumption on the need to have the law.

AMIR KARAMOY

Jakarta