National legislation program

National legislation program

Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman reminded us of the need to accelerate the development of new laws or a "national legislation" program. According to the minister, a national legislation program would make Indonesian laws compatible to the development of society and would revise colonial law remnants.

As the era of industrialization takes over the agrarian era, laws must be able to meet economic, scientific and technological advances. In the investment sector, for instance, the investors need legal certainty, not simply profits.

In the context of legal certainty, it is highly necessary for the law making body to take inventory of the old colonial laws and determine what should be done to update the already obsolete laws. Many suggest that all the colonial laws be annihilated since they no longer serve the purposes of today's changing society.

The Justice Minister stressed that the matter is not that simple since all the laws will have to be translated from old Dutch into Bahasa Indonesia. This will, by no means, be an easy job.

Based on that fact, we will support any idea to integrate the efforts among related agencies to carry out a national legislation program. For this, the availability of equipment and funds is highly essential.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta