Regulating demonstrations

Regulating demonstrations

The draft law on demonstrations is at present in its final stages of preparation. The draft will shortly be proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. A team representing various ministries is at present finalizing it. All this was explained by the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday.

When the draft is completed and made into law, it will be the first-ever legislation adopted specifically to regulate demonstrations. Naturally, its contents will be the focus of public attention.

Whatever one may believe about the presence of such a law, one thing on which we commonly agree is that demonstrations are in essence expressions of the rights of citizens. Apart from the fact that they are universally recognized by the United Nations Charter, in Indonesia this basic right is protected by Article 28 of our Constitution dealing with the rights of expression and association.

We believe and hope that when the time comes for the draft law to be debated in the House of Representatives, the interests of all groups will be accommodated to the fullest. This is all the more important because in many cases demonstrations are not merely problems of law, but often carry political dimensions.

For this reason it would be wise, before the draft law is debated and passed into law, to examine the issue on an open forum involving all the various parties concerned. If necessary a public debate could be held. We should in this case perhaps take a lesson from the case of the Traffic Law, which was debated in closed meetings, only to raise opposition when it was passed into law.

-- Republika, Jakarta