House urged to drop state security bill

House urged to drop state security bill

JAKARTA (JP): Observers urged the House of Representatives on
Thursday to drop a controversial bill on state security, citing
loopholes for power and rights abuses they found in the document.

Clementino dos Reis Amaral of the National Commission on Human
Rights said the bill, submitted to the House in May by the
Ministry of Defense, was against reform and democracy. He was
speaking at a seminar, which also featured Amien Aryoso and Usep
Ranawidjaja of the Rectors Forum.

He said the House would meet opposition from all quarters if
it continued to deliberate the bill. He cited the bill's most
controversial point was the stipulation which granted the
President and military leadership full authority to enforce a
state of emergency without consulting legislative bodies.

"The bill also allows the executive and the military, when
facing crucial situations, to take illegal action, to recruit
individuals for military duty, to gag the media and to isolate
blacklisted individuals," he said, adding that the bill gave the
executive ruler supremacy above the law.

Criticism poured in on the bill, including from a number of
legislators, law practitioners, the rights body and mass
organizations concerned with human rights and democracy in the
country.

The government and military defended the bill, saying it was
similar to security acts in other countries, including the United
States, Britain and Japan.

The House gave a positive response to the criticism and said
it was open to suggestions on how to introduce changes to the
bill.

Amien said the bill was worse than the 1959 law on
implementation of a state of emergency and the other one enforced
by the Dutch colonial government. "According to the two previous
laws, a state of emergency which was formerly known as staat van
oorlog een beleg ("state of war and siege") must be declared by
the authorities after consultation with the House of
Representatives," he said at the seminar.

He said the bill should also make clear when a state of
civilian emergency, military emergency or war emergency should be
declared. The distinction was needed so current and next
governments would be prevented from enforcing the bill on
situations such as labor strikes, student brawls and the present
tension in Aceh and Maluku.

Amien and Amaral agreed that not only did the current House
have no legitimacy, but it did not even have enough time to
process a strategic document before the next House was to be
sworn in.

"The bill should be dropped because it was made by President
B.J. Habibie's government, which is really a continuation of
former president Soeharto's repressive regime," Usep said.

He said that many laws, including ones made by Habibie's
transitional government, should be amended by the next government
because they were against the democracy and reform movement.

Violence

Separately, military observer Hasnan Habib said on Thursday
Indonesia never witnessed one truly peaceful day that encompassed
the whole country since Independence Day on Aug. 17, 1945.

"It did not happen even during the New Order regime which was
proud because it established peace and stability in the country,"
Hasnan said. He was speaking at a book launch hosted by the
Center for Study on Humanitarian Law at the Trisakti University
in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) to commemorate the anniversary of the 1949 Geneva
Convention on Humanitarian Law.

Titled Traditional Laws of War in Indonesia, the book is a
popular version of a study by the center on traditional
humanitarian laws in Indonesia.

"The study shows that laws of war have existed in Indonesia
since early times and... were in line with modern humanitarian
laws," said Toni Pfanner, the head of the Regional Delegation of
ICRC.

Hasnan cited various unrests in Indonesia since 1945,
including the ongoing violence in Aceh where military operations
took place for more than a decade.

Military intervention in Aceh was excessive and it looked like
the Indonesian Military did not understand humanitarian law,
Hasnan said. "They only know one principle, to kill or be
killed," he said.

"This has given us the reputation as a nation of savages and
cannibals," he said, referring to further violence in West
Kalimantan, Maluku and East Timor.

In a related development, a group of human rights activists
established on Thursday an independent team for the
reinvestigation of cases of rights violations which were frozen
by the government.

Senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad cited the case of slain
labor activist Marsinah as among one of the first to be handled
by the team called Jejak. The next would probably be those in
Aceh "where torture, killing and violence are committed in the
name of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

Members of the board of founders include Arief Budiman, Ariel
Heryanto, Aristides Katoppo, Nurcholis Madjid and Emil Salim.
(05/10/rms)