Mega urged to reject controversial bill

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has urged President Megawati Soekarnoputri to reject a controversial bill expected to increase the powers of police, and return it to the House of Representatives for further deliberation.

The calls come as a member of the House's committee, which deliberated the National Police Bill, said bribe payments might have forced the passage of the bill through the committee. The House endorsed the police bill in a plenary session on Monday despite severe public criticism.

The NGOs, collectively called the NGOs Coalition on the Police Bill, said the House and the government had turned a deaf ear to public rejection of the bill.

Megawati should not pass the bill into law by refusing to sign it until its controversial articles were amended, coalition spokesman Bambang Widjojanto said.

The bill granted police authority to act based on their own assessments, but it did not define a clear control mechanism on police activity, Bambang said.

"If Megawati passes the bill into law, it means the police are given the rights to act more suppressively as there is no clear control mechanism to limit their activities."

Bambang further said article 18, paragraph 1, of the bill states that for the sake of public interest, police officials can act based on their own assessment in carrying out their tasks and authorities.

J.E Sahetapy, a member of the committee in charge of deliberating the police bill, indicated on Wednesday that money politics had taken place in the deliberation process.

He did not name the exact location of the transactions, but said money bribes were disbursed among the legislators in a hotel in Jakarta.

"Of course, this practice is carried out by the group that has a vested interest. I won't mention the name because it is difficult to prove," Sahetapy told The Jakarta Post.

Sahetapy, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- Perjuangan) said he had reported this to party leaders but there had been no immediate response.

Bambang also said that enactment of the police bill could also become an entry point to the new authoritarian system, as the president could freely utilize the police who are now armed with such a suppressive mechanism.

"If it is the wish of President Megawati, then we should welcome a new authoritarianism," said Bambang, a former chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation.

The House delayed passage of the bill approval on Oct. 24 to collect the consider public submissions expected to improve the bill's content.

"But all aspirations were ignored while minor changes to the bill is only based on negotiations among politicians. It is a clear manipulation of public aspirations by the legislators, particularly by members of the House special committee on the police bill," Bambang said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Police Watch secretary general Adnan Pandupraja, part of the coalition, slammed the House special committee for ignoring public submissions, saying the viewpoints had cost the House a lot of money to gather.

"Activities that spend hundreds of millions of rupiah or even billions of rupiah were only used as a tool of legitimization by the House special committee," Adnan said.

Adnan stressed that revision of the bill was a necessity, as it still contained many weaknesses, including: * Placing security aspects as a priority; * Police functions and structures to still be militaristic; * Wide police authority without a clear explanation could spark excesses; * No clear control mechanism; * Ignoring regional participation.