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)