Govt urged to abolish permit rules
JAKARTA (JP): Nine non-governmental organizations, led by the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute and the Indonesian Forum for Environment, yesterday urged the House of Representatives to abolish all laws which require people to obtain official permits for various activities.
The NGOs, in a petition sent to the House, said the time has come for the authorities in Indonesia to change the way they treat their citizens.
"They should no longer use permit regulations as their political tools to control the activities of the people. On the contrary, they should give people ample room to be creative and dynamic," read the petition.
Other NGOs which signed the petition were the Indonesian Anti- Nuclear Society, the Social Information and Legal Counsel Channel, the Village Development Union, Women's Solidarity, the Indonesian Rainbow Foundation, the International Forum for Indonesia Development, and the Adil Sejahtera Forum Legal Aid and Protection Foundation.
The nine NGOs are active in diverse fields, but they have one thing in common: They have all fallen victim to what they called arbitrary use of the rules on gathering permits.
"The various bans (on gatherings) that have occurred in the past have been detrimental as they denied people access to information that the gatherings would have given them," according to the petition, the latest contribution to the debate after the government announced that it was reviewing its policy on gathering permits last week.
The NGOs said that last year there were 18 events that were banned, refused permits or broken up by the government. This year, the count has already reached 16. "This shows how deep the permit policy has become embedded in our political life."
"The public have not only adapted to the policy, they have become a very part of the process. It has reached the point where people feel that some events would be prone to disturbances unless they had official permission."
"The policy requiring people to obtain permits has left a deep impression that the people cannot discipline themselves to run their affairs in an orderly fashion. It also leaves the impression that only the authorities can maintain order."
Besides the abolition of the permit policy, the NGOs demanded a review of various legislations, including five political laws enacted in 1985 that have been the used as the basis of the current political system, and the 1963 anti-subversion law.
It also called for the abolition of the government regulation requiring newspapers and magazines to obtain publishing permits from the government, because it is inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech.
The policy on gathering permits was discussed at a limited cabinet meeting led by Coordinating Minister of Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman yesterday. It was Soesilo who last week disclosed that he has commissioned a team in his office to review the regulations on gathering permits.
On a separate occasion, Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo yesterday defended the gathering permit policy, stressing that the regulation is consistent with the Criminal Code.
Dibyo said police have a duty to ensure that seminars do not discuss subjects that are "deviant".
He added that in the case of the police decision to break up a meeting organized by Yayasan Indonesia Baru last week, the officers only moved in when the questions became "deviant". (emb/bsr)