Rights activist warns of threat from new security bill
JAKARTA (JP): A leading human rights activist has said that the bill on the state's safety and security is even more of a threat to the public than the newly scrapped 1963 Subversion Law.
Coordinator of the independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Munir alleged on Monday the bill was inspired by Malaysia's much criticized Internal Security Act.
Deliberation of the bill has been scheduled at the House of Representatives for this month, but the government has yet to submit the bill.
Minister of Justice Muladi recently assured it would be submitted before the June elections.
Munir said he had read the draft of the bill on the state's safety and security. He said the Armed Forces (ABRI) Headquarters invited him in 1996 and 1997 to discuss the bill.
The draft, he said, was a "recycling" of the subversion law and under which anyone could be detained for one year.
He told The Jakarta Post he believed it was unlikely that the bill to be submitted by the government would be much different from the original draft despite a change of government.
"We must not underestimate them (ABRI). The controversial Law on Freedom of Expression, ratified last year, was initiated by ABRI".
Munir said he expected the upcoming bill and the government's proposal to include "crimes against the state" in the Criminal Code to be "extremely counterproductive to reform development".
Minister Muladi submitted a bill to revoke the subversion law to the House of Representatives (DPR) last week. Muladi proposed its replacement with the inclusion of six new articles on crimes against the state in the Criminal Code.
The six articles include regulations on crimes that endanger the Pancasila state ideology, on the prohibition of spreading Marxism-Leninism and acts of sabotage of state or military installations or the distribution of basic essentials.
Unlike the subversion law, under which a violator could be given the death penalty, the bill proposes a maximum 20-year prison term.
Under the subversion law, law enforcers are authorized to detain violators for a maximum of one year for questioning. While under the Criminal Code Procedures, the maximum allowed period of detention is 60 days.
"If the bill on the state's safety and security becomes law, the government can use it to silence or arrest anyone regarded a threat to its vested interests," Munir noted.
Separately, several legal experts on Monday criticized the Law on Freedom of Expression, saying the law lacks detail and overlaps with other prevailing laws.
Muladi has said the law stressed human rights, regarding the right of security of people affected by, among other things, demonstrations. The law requires police notification for demonstrations.
The head of West Jakarta District Court, Suparno, said the law did not clearly regulate sanctions for a violator, or whether a protester could be charged with other related laws.
"The sanctions are not clear," Suparno said in a discussion on the implementation of the freedom of expression law in Jakarta.
Students tried for holding demonstrations in Jakarta without notifying the police have been fined Rp 2,000 (25 US cents). Most have refused to pay. (prb/aan)