Political rallies still need permits
Political rallies still need permits
JAKARTA (JP): The government has decided to maintain the
policies requiring people to obtain police permits for political
gatherings.
Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman said yesterday that permits
are no longer required for non-political gatherings such as
cultural, social and religious events.
Political gatherings, however, are different, he said.
"Political gatherings are not included in the list of permit-
free gatherings," he told reporters after attending a plenary
meeting of the House of Representatives. The plenary session
ratified the government-sponsored draft law on Correctional
Institutions.
Oetojo explained that people should refer to the existing
regulations on gatherings. Political gatherings are covered in
the 1963, Number 5 presidential decree.
The government announced in August that it was waiving permit
requirements for non-political gatherings such as cultural,
religious and social events.
At the time, the government said requirements would also be
relaxed for scientific seminars on campuses. People who planned
to hold such gatherings would no longer be required to request
permits; instead they only needed to notify the police about an
intended event.
The announcement was made following the establishment in June
of an interdepartmental team, chaired by Oetojo, to review the
regulations requiring people to obtain permission for every
gathering, including cultural performances.
The team prepared a draft on the guidelines for holding public
gatherings, which Oetojo said will be translated into a
government decree to be effective as of Jan. 1, 1996.
Even with the August announcement, in the absence of clear
guidelines, a number of meetings and cultural performances have
continued to become victims of government bans. Authorities
usually cited security reasons for breaking up gatherings.
No less than 26 events were broken-up in the first half of
this year, including several cultural performances.
Political figures and government critics such as Indonesian
Democratic Party chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri and head of
the Nahdlatul Ulama Moslem organization Abdurrahman Wahid were
among the victims of the policy.
The permit requirements have come under a great deal of
criticism, with charges that they deviate from Article 28 of the
1945 Constitution guaranteeing people's right to assemble.(imn)