NGO activists reject antiterrorism bills
A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed opposition on Monday to antiterrorism bills soon to be submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation, saying the draconian bills threatened both democracy and human rights.
The NGOs insisted that existing laws were sufficient to support the country's war against terrorism, provided that appropriate amendments were made to the regulations.
Meanwhile, the House repeated on Monday its call for the government to submit the antiterrorism bills for deliberation.
House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and his deputy, Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, urged the government to submit the bills as soon as possible.
"We are asking the government to submit the bills soon so that the government regulations in lieu of antiterrorism laws will not be in effect for too long," Akbar said.
The government plans to submit to the House for deliberation a bill on antiterrorism and another on the implementation of an antiterrorism bill dealing with the Bali bombings.
The contents of the bills are similar to the two antiterrorism regulations issued earlier by the government. The regulations have been widely criticized by rights activists.
According to Akbar, the submission of the antiterrorism bills to the House would help reduce the controversy surrounding the issuance of the two regulations.
"We can change some of the articles in the bills considered to be contentious," Akbar said.
Soetardjo said the issuance of the government regulations was aimed at bypassing the usually long process of deliberating bills in the House; a process made longer when the government fails to deliver bills to the House in a timely manner.
"Until today we have not received the antiterrorism bills (from the government)," he said.
According to rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, terrorism is adequately covered by existing regulations, including the Law on Explosives, the Law on Money Laundering, the Criminal Code Procedures and the Law on Banking Secrecy.
Todung urged the public to increase the pressure on the House to prevent the bills from being passed into law.
He said this effort must include pressure on House members to amend existing laws and regulations rather than drafting new antiterrorism bills.
"Public consultation should now be promoted and expanded to point out the details of the amendments, including which new clauses need to be attached to existing regulations," Todung said during a discussion on Monday organized by human rights watch Imparsial.
If the bills are passed into law, which carry even more weight than regulations, it could aggravate the situation in the country, said Todung.
"State terrorism might eventually occur if the bills are passed into law," he warned.
Munir, an executive of the Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, agreed, saying that both the antiterrorism bills and the regulations would undermine the country's fledgling democracy and human rights.
The regulations, in particular, give security forces wide- ranging powers, including the power to arrest any one suspected of links to terrorist networks.
These powers could threaten the country's fragile democracy because they are open to abuse, Munir said.
According to Munir, the regulations are dangerous because they unfairly link particular ethnic groups and religions with terrorism.
He did not go into detail, but the recent arrests of several Muslim hard-liners has caused a public uproar.
"It is feared this stereotyping could lead to wrongful arrests, violating human rights," Munir said.