Mega urged to reject controversial bill
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.