Rights activists blast bill on street protests
Rights activists blast bill on street protests
JAKARTA (JP): Leading human rights campaigners have dismissed
a bill on street protests as the government's bid to restrict
citizens' rights to freely express ideas rather than a serious
effort to respect freedom of expression.
They insisted yesterday that the bill, which the government
has yet to submit to the House of Representatives for
deliberation, was a setback and against the burning spirit of
political reform.
Rights activists contributing their opinions in separate
interviews with The Jakarta Post were Hendardi of the Indonesian
Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Bambang Widjojanto
of the Legal Aid Foundation and Marzuki Darusman of the National
Commission on Human Rights.
The bill, sponsored by the military, regulates, among other
things, the number of demonstrators, venues of protests and the
necessity to obtain permits from the police. It was presented
Wednesday by Minister of Defense and Security Affairs/ Armed
Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto to President B.J. Habibie.
"The bill is fraught with restrictions and it maintains the
spirit of the repressive New Order government (under former
president Soeharto)," Hendardi said.
Hendardi said the so called "Freedom of Expression" bill was
paradoxical.
He urged the government to change its perspective in
deliberations of the bill with the House of Representatives.
"They should stress more on how to control the security forces
rather than how to control the public."
In a statement made available to the media, PBHI stressed that
security forces' authority was safeguarding the protest and
nothing else.
The security forces should not intervene or even try to ban
protests, it said.
"In case of criminal offenses such as rioting and looting, the
security forces should do what the Criminal Code prescribes."
PBHI said the authorities should never be given the right to
disperse or detain protesters unless they have undisputed
evidence that the demonstrators have committed criminal offenses.
Sharing Hendardi's ideas, Bambang said the future law should
also regulate the use of force by security personnel.
"The government should regulate more the security forces' code
of conduct and the use of firearms in street protests," Bambang
said.
He urged the government and the House to involve non-
governmental organizations and the public before they deliberate
the bill.
Marzuki said the rights body had found that the bill focused
on restrictions rather than on facilitation of the implementation
of human rights and the freedom of speech.
"The whole philosophy of enforcing order is based on
prohibition rather than on facilitating procedures and the means
to allow the public, individually and collectively, to express
opinions and to assemble. So we do have reservations," Marzuki
said.
Marzuki noted a great need for socializing the bill and having
it debated in public before the government tried to push it
through the House.
Marzuki also noted that there was a contradiction between the
intention of the law and the actual formulation of certain
clauses, which have the effect of restricting the enjoyment of
exercising political rights.
"For example, it is almost impossible to limit the number of
protesters to 100 when there is widespread dissatisfaction,"
Marzuki said.
Marzuki, a former House member from the Golkar faction agreed,
however, that the exercise of the freedom of speech does need
regulating.
"The principle of regulating freedom of speech is not contrary
to the right of free speech but the regulation should be in the
spirit of democracy," he added.
Chairman of the Center for Information and Action Network for
Reform, Halim Hatta, said the bill was a contradiction to
Wiranto's promise for democratization. (byg)