House, govt make progress on bill debate

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives and the government have reached an agreement on 12 principles to be included in the bill on freedom of expression.

Sutradara Ginting, a member of House Commission I on information and law, said that he was optimistic the draft law would be in favor of democracy.

"If the bill turns out to be 'anti-democracy', the public is entitled to slam the House," he said after attending a closed session to deliberate the bill with Minister of Justice and Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto here on Friday.

Sutradara praised the two ministers' democratic stance in discussions of the draft law.

"The government is being quite democratic by deliberating this bill," he said.

He added that deliberation of the bill and the draft political laws, both of which were recently submitted by the government, was a starting point for the House to begin restoring its badly- tarnished image.

Commenting on Friday's session, he said progress had been made with the striking of an agreement on "12 principles" which should be contained in the bill.

The 12 principles agreed to are as follows: * no permits for demonstrations, neither explicit nor implicit, will be needed from the police. * demonstrators are required to provide the police with written notification. The notification is necessary to enable the police to provide them with protection. Ginting said the police should not use this clause to impose an unofficial permit system because they have no right to reject any notification. * the number of demonstrators in any protest is not limited. * there must not be any physical or psychological intervention in any shape or form to prevent people from exercising their freedom of expression. * anyone, including private citizens and members of the state apparatus who obstruct or interfere with a demonstration can be penalized. "'Anyone' includes officials who find themselves targeted by demonstrations," Ginting said. * all government officials, including the country's president, can be the subject of protests. Protests are permitted in all public places. * all stipulations in the bill that could be interpreted in more than one way should be elucidated in the bill's explanatory chapters. "This will include definitions of what constitutes 'disturbing public order' and 'threatening national union and unity' to avoid misinterpretation," Ginting said. * people who witness demonstrations have the right to help maintain security and are entitled to lodge complaints with the police if they are disturbed. * the organizers of academic activities on university campuses and religious activities are not required to notify the police. * the expression of opinion through the mass media is not subject to regulation under the bill. * labor strikes in work places are not regulated under the bill. * materials distributed at demonstrations do not require official approval.

Ginting said his fellow legislators in the commission should strive to ensure that all chapters and articles in the bill reflect these principles.

Asked about possible sanctions, Ginting said the bill referred to the Criminal Code. "The penalties comprise of administrative sanctions, criminal and civil penalties," he said. (aan)