House set to endorse broadcast, party bills

House set to endorse broadcast, party bills

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) is set to endorse on Thursday
two contentious bills, one on political parties and one on
broadcasting, despite strong opposition from political parties
and broadcasting worker's unions.

The long-overdue political parties bill was scheduled to be
endorsed last Tuesday, but was delayed as legislators failed to
reach an agreement on the inclusion of two People's Consultative
Assembly decrees, one on the banning of communism and one on
annual reports by state institutions, in the preamble to the bill

The chairman of the House special committee charged with
deliberating the bill, Yahya Zaini, said on Wednesday that all
the factions had reached an agreement on the substance of the
bill.

He revealed that there had only been a short debate on the
inclusion of the Assembly decrees.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) had insisted that the decrees be
excluded from the bill's preamble, arguing that they would be
reviewed during next year's annual session of the Assembly.

According to the PDI Perjuangan, the decrees would be revoked,
and therefore there was no need to include them in the preamble
to the political parties bill.

Meanwhile, the broadcasting bill, which was supposed to have
been endorsed on Monday, was delayed until Thursday because of
poor attendance by legislators and opposition from media
practitioners.

And the protests against the bill continued on Wednesday when
television broadcasters grouped in the Indonesian Television
Broadcasting Association (ATVSI) met Assembly Speaker Amien Rais
to voice their objections.

The delegation, headed by Karni Ilyas of SCTV, condemned the
bill, saying that it was repressive and threatened the existence
of private sector broadcasters.

"We urge the government and the legislators to delay the
endorsement and to review the bill," Karni read from a prepared
statement.

Karni, who was accompanied by Andi F. Noya (Metro TV),
Wisnuhadi (RCTI), Nurhadi Purwosaputro (Indosiar), and Uni Lubis
(TV7), acknowledged that his group had submitted its views during
the deliberation of the bill.

However, he claimed that 99 percent of the group's input had
been ignored by legislators.

Responding to the complaint, Amien appealed to legislators to
give time for further talks on the bill before bringing it before
a plenary session for endorsement.

"I think it needs more time before being endorsed. No need to
hurry," he said.

Amien, who also chairs the National Mandate Party (PAN), said
that the different views expressed on the broadcasting bill had
prompted him to reassess it.

He added that a broadcasting law was a very strategic
instrument in that it could lead to either greater or less
democracy.

If there was no freedom of the press, Amien said, it would
only lead to a bad situation.

"But if freedom of the press exists, there are two
possibilities. It may give rise to a good or a bad situation
depending on the television stations," he said.