Government prepares a new emergency law
JAKARTA (JP): The government is preparing a new emergency law, replacing a previous law drafted during the rule of former president B.J. Habibie which has not been enforced due to strong public opposition, a minister said on Thursday.
"The new emergency law is basically a response to widespread criticism that the 1999 law on security is militaristic and prone to human rights violations," Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told a media conference after a Cabinet meeting.
"We have eliminated those aspects so that the new law will be far more accommodative and aware of human rights values," Yusril said.
The law was enacted by the House of Representatives (DPR) in September 1999, but was soon after postponed indefinitely by then president Habibie following violent street protests by students.
At least five people were killed in the protests, the majority of victims being shot by security forces.
A draft for the new law has been prepared by the government and will soon be proposed to the House for deliberation, Yusril said.
"The Cabinet meeting today has instructed several cabinet ministers to meet with House leaders to discuss the new emergency law," Yusril said, but did not elaborate.
The minister said a number of senior human rights activists were also involved in drafting the new emergency law bill, including Munir, who founded the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and lawyer Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara.
Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D., who was also present on Thursday, said that constitutional law experts Harun Alrasid, Ismail Sunny and Arifin Suryaatmadja were also involved in preparing the bill.
"The government has decided that it will lobby the DPR to 'forget' the (1999) law on security and deliberate a new emergency bill," Mahfud said.
Yusril has previously said that enforcing the 1999 law on security now would put the government "in a difficult situation" as the consequence of such a move would be "to revoke a state of civil emergency" in Maluku.
The civil emergency in Maluku, which was imposed by the government in June last year, is based on the 1959 law on security.
Yusril said the civil emergency status in Maluku will have "no legal grounds" if the 1999 law on security, which was precisely aimed at replacing the 1959 law on security, is enforced.
The government has imposed a state of civil emergency in Maluku and North Maluku to end months of sectarian clashes which have killed thousands of people since the violence first erupted in January 1999.
Meanwhile, the House and the government has included the bill on emergency law on the list of 108 draft laws prioritized for deliberation during the 2001 fiscal year.
"The bill needs review in accordance with the reform era and in order to appease suspicion among opposition groups," Yusril said in a hearing with the House's Commission II on home and legal affairs later on Thursday night.
Yusril also welcomed the commission's proposal for the establishment of a special court to try corruption cases, but suggested that it be a division of the existing district court.
He said many alleged corrupt figures who had been taken to court were later acquitted of charges because the evidence lodged by prosecutors was very weak, not because the judges had abused their power.
He cited the Soeharto case as an example, explaining that the former president could not be tried because the prosecution presented a very weak case against him.
Earlier, Commission II chairman Amien Aryoso, who presided over the hearing, called on the government to set up a special court to try corruption cases in response to public dissatisfaction with recent corruption trials.
"The establishment of such a special court is expected to effectively send corrupt people to prison," he said.
He said many people were dissatisfied with recent trials of corruption cases, as most of the defendants had been acquitted of all charges. (byg/rms)