Government bans not lawful: Rights body

JAKARTA (JP): The Secretary General of the National Commission on Human Rights said yesterday that the government's recent bans on people making public speeches and bans on seminars and cultural performances are illegal.

"We cannot prohibit a person from speaking or expressing views, or an organization from holding a gathering," Baharuddin Lopa told reporters when asked to contribute to the current debate on the government's policy on gathering permits.

Lopa said the 1945 Constitution guarantees people the right to express their views and to gather as well as to associate.

The government could not prevent people from voicing their opinions even though it might know in advance what they would say, he said.

This applies in cases of seminars, he said. "If the speaker makes remarks that offend the government or has an impact on national stability, only then the government could act."

Lopa made the remarks after attending a hearing with House of Representatives' Commission III, which oversees law.

The government has announced that it is reviewing its policy on the issuance of gathering permits. The policy has come under scrutiny lately after a number of seminars and cultural performances were either banned or broken up by the police. At other times, the government banned certain vocal critics of the government from addressing seminars.

The debate has already produced some results. The Ministry of Education and Culture has announced that academic seminars no longer requires permits, but attendance should be limited to academic circles.

Lopa said the current review must ensure that the policy is consistent with the 1945 Constitution. "Freedom of speech is the soul of a democratic life," he said.

Joining in the debate yesterday was Muladi, a legal expert from the Diponegoro University in Semarang and also a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, who said that the policy on permits for gatherings is another form of "censorship" that should be abolished completely.

"Freedom of speech and expression are basic principles of human rights," he said in Semarang yesterday.

He concurred with Lopa's view that the police could only act after a violation has occurred and not before.

Muladi, who is also rector of Diponegoro University, said article 510 of the Criminal Code, which is used by the government to bar or break up gatherings, is something which Indonesia inherited from the Dutch legal system. "The article should simply be overruled without having to wait for the introduction of the new code."

He cautioned the police on the issue, especially when it involved foreign speakers.

Earlier this month, the police in Jakarta broke up a discussion on Islam and politics in Indonesia that featured Robert William Hefner, an anthropologist from Boston University. Hefner was questioned for several hours before he was released.

"The treatment Hefner received is a sensitive issue on human rights," Muladi said, adding that the freedom of speech is ruled in the International Bill of Human Rights. (imn/har)