M Rosseno Aji, Jakarta – The National Alliance for the Reform of the Criminal Code has sent a letter to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo demanding that he give the public access to the latest draft of the new Draft Criminal Code or RKUHP..
“As the public authority, the government and the DPR [House of Representatives] are obliged to guarantee the formulation of all regulations", said Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) General Chairperson Muhammad Isnur in a press release on Thursday June 9.
Isnur said that the letter was sent to Widodo on June 9 via the State Secretariat. In the letter, the alliance, which is made up of many different non-government organisations (NGOs), said that in September 2019 Widodo ordered a postponement of deliberations on the RKUHP and took back the draft RKUHP from the DPR so that it could be looked into by the government.
Isnur said that as of mid-May this year, no new draft of the RKUHP has been available to the public. He said that on May 25 the government and the DPR again began discussing the draft law by providing information on a matrix of 14 crucial issues in the RKUHP.
But his was done without revealing the entire contents of the latest draft. "Because of this, the National Alliance for the Reform of the KUHP is calling on the government to reveal the latest draft of the RKUHP to the public", he said.
Isnur said that in the September 2019 version of the RKUHP, the Alliance found many critical problems which need to be reviewed and jointly discussed in a substantial manner.
"For this, we are again calling on the government and the DPR to not immediately enact the RKUHP because the public has the right to confirm these substantial changes", he said.
Isnur said that the drafting of the RKUHP must be done in a transparent and inclusive manner before it is passed into law. He said that the crucial issues that must be discussed first are the 24 points in the Problem Inventory List (DIM) which were submitted by the Alliance, and not just the 14 points in the government's version.
He said that the RKUHP will have a direct impact on society and because of this, the deliberations on the law must involve the public. "The grounds for not revealing the latest draft of the RKUHP in order to avoid a public polemic conflicts with the democratic principles practiced by the Indonesian nation", said Isnur.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Aliansi Masyarakat Sipil Desak Jokowi Buka Draf Baru RKUHP".]
Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1600085/aliansi-masyarakat-sipil-desak-jokowi-buka-draf-baru-rkuhp/
