New policy on permits draws mixed reactions

JAKARTA (JP): The government's decision to waive permit requirements for academic seminars received mixed reactions yesterday, as a former general hailed it as a step forward while the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation blasted the reform as superficial and ineffective.

Retired Gen. Soemitro welcomed the decision to "return the freedom of the rostrum to the campus."

He said allowing free speech on university campuses was "the beginning of the democratization process," adding that there was nothing wrong with people expressing their opinions.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), by contrast, described the government's decision as a feeble move under which the political development of students would continue to be shackled.

"The decision only changes the authority from many hands, the police and social-political apparatus along with the National Stability Coordinating Agency, to the hands of the (university) rector," it said in a statement signed by its communications director, Hendardi.

Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, speaking after chairing a special cabinet meeting on Thursday, that the government was waiving permit requirements for academic activities on campus.

The announcement followed a statement last week that the government was forming a team to review the universal requirement for an official permit for any gathering of more than five people, including cultural exhibitions and performances.

The permits may be issued by the national police headquarters if recommendations have been made by the various government agencies involved in the specific field concerned with the subject of a proposed gathering.

According to Soesilo, in the past six months the government has issued 1,152 permits for various events. Five requests have been turned down and 26 events have been broken up because they had not complied with the requirements.

Thursday's meeting also decided on the creation of a working group for further permit review, to be headed by Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman. The team has been given until the end of July to report their findings.

The deputy to the national police chief for operational affairs, Maj. Gen. Mangatar Hutagalung, said yesterday that a meeting to clarify the matter further would be held between the police chief and the director general for higher education at the ministry of education and culture.

"We shall of course follow up on what the coordinating minister said by implementing it all the way to the lowest level," he said.

During a meeting with reporters, Soemitro yesterday warned that, despite the new decision, students must not take their activities beyond the campus.

"The most important thing is that they should not go out. Don't demonstrate," the former chief of the Internal Security Agency warned. "If I was still in charge I would ban demonstrations," he added.

The YLBHI argued that the holding of the special meeting which was attended by, among others, the minister of justice and the National Intelligence Bureau Chief Soedibyo, proved that the issue of permits was a highly political affair.

The foundation condemned the permits policy as the heritage of Dutch colonial rule and the Japanese military occupation.

"Does the New Order have to continually perpetrate what was inflicted by the colonial authorities and fascist Japan?" the foundation stated. "New Order" describes the government of President Soeharto since he came to power in 1966.

The YLBHI noted the comments of Director General for Higher Education Bambang Soehendro, who said that non-academic activities would still require permits. "This only clarifies how the rector receives legitimacy from his superiors to control the students and student affairs."

Such a situation was unfavorable, the foundation said, given the often strained relations between the students' senate and the rectorate, adding that the rectorate was often identified as part of the state bureaucracy.

The YLBHI called for the government to change its perception that freedom of assembly endangered national unity and stability. "This kind of negative perception on the part of government officials must be changed," the foundation said.

Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, Riswandha Imawan, a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the politics of the permit had created a monolithic situation in Indonesian society.

"The politics of permits has effectively helped a single political force in Indonesia to gain power for itself and control the political podium in this country," he said.

He said that the function of the permits was to monitor the activities of citizens. (bsr/har/mds)