Ade Surya, Makassar – Scores of students from the Democracy Concern Coalition (Kopidemo) held a rally at the Jl. Urip Sumoharjo flyover in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar on Monday August 21 against the rise of militarism.
In a speech protest leader Jail said that the rise of the military through occupying seats in the administration could destroy efforts by the people to uncover and resolve the problems of human rights violations in Indonesia.
“The military isn’t just handling the country’s defense, they have also entered into civil space. In addition to this, they also dictate what it is to be a country, a single interpretation [of the state ideology of] Pancasila, and we believe that they are also blocking efforts to resolve human rights cases”, he said.
According to Jail, the Draft Law (RUU) on National Security is in the final drafting stage at the Defense Ministry after being rejected by the House of Representatives (DPR) because several articles were abstract and could be misused.
“In its application this RUU does not meet [legal] standards because of the many abstract words. For example, ‘threats’, ‘disturbances’, ‘conduciveness’, ‘defense and development’. We believe it is these words that are unclear or abstract”, he said.
In addition to opposing the draft security law, they also rejected the new Government Regulation in Lieu of Law on Social Organisations (Perppu Ormas).
This is because they believe that the articles on insulting religion that are already covered in Article 156a of the Criminal Code and Article 28 Paragraph 2 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) are often used by intolerant groups to criminalise minority religious groups.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Kopidemo Melakukan Unjuk Rasa Menolak Perppu Ormas dan RUU Kamnas.]
