The trauma remains

The trauma remains

The new ruling on freedom of expression announced by the government on Wednesday removes some of the excessive obligations placed on the people's shoulders by the now obsolete Criminal Code. But as a whole, the new policy falls far short of meeting the public's expectations. People from many circles are disappointed by the new policy in which police retain the authority to curtail constitutional rights.

People now have the freedom to hold wedding parties or similar gatherings without police permits even though this kind of basic personal freedom should have been provided to them five decades ago. Another awkward element of the new policy is the freedom given to political groups to hold meetings without a permit as long as "they do not discuss how the state is being governed and have no intention of influencing the way that is done".

In fact, the people have a genuine constitutional right to discuss politics, including the way they are being governed and where the government will take them.

The question remains: Who has the authority to judge the nature of the meeting? The police officers? What a comedy that would create if such a thing were to happen.

The new policy also stipulates that anyone wanting to hold a political demonstration is obliged to request a police permit seven days beforehand. According to the new ruling the police still have special authority to break up any gathering if "there is foregoing evidence showing intent or activity which disrupts the public order or breaches the law".

These stipulations leave us wondering what the policy change really means.

People who wish to demonstrate against any unlawful acts by power holders will automatically lose momentum if they have to wait for a police permit.

To make a long story short, in a country where the administration is very strong, with no sound system of checks and balances, the authorities tend to look for loopholes between every comma and period in any ruling in order to justify their use of power.

The authorities have broken up so many gatherings that our people are dogged by trauma. The police have manufactured evidence time after time to come up with the charge of "disturbing public order" as a reason to break up meetings.

A recent meeting of an unauthorized labor union was banned because of "a public disturbance" caused by demonstrators renouncing its existence. Instead of banning the meeting, the police officers should have dispersed the mysterious protesters who were demonstrating outside the place the gathering was held. This is a blatant example of well planned abuse of power.

When Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman announced in August that the government planned to relax the permit policy, many people welcomed it as the dawning of a new era of openness because they believed there would be a significant change in the old policy. But what was expected as a great salvo of freedom on Wednesday has turned out to be a small firecracker.

There is no substantial change. The authorities still seem intent on controlling the people's political activities and forcing them to toe the government line. The new ruling has failed to return the basic rights stolen from them so long ago by the Dutch colonial authorities. Neither has it opened the way towards the pure implementation of the freedom of expression guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

By issuing the new ruling, the government seems to be saying it is willing to give the citizens political freedom bit by bit. This means the rigid political situation is here to stay for the foreseeable future.