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)