Rahmat W. Nugraha, Jakarta – The Press Council says that 60 percent of their input provided before the enactment of the Draft Criminal Court (RKUHP) was ignored by the House of Representatives (DPR).
"What was the final result? All of it was rejected, 60 percent ignored, 35 percent included in the elucidation and only one point accepted because it was indeed minor", said Press Council member Sapto Anggoro during a discussion held at the Religious Affairs Ministry in Bogor, West Java, as quoted by Tribunnews.com on Sunday December 11.
Anggoro revealed that before the RKUHP was enacted, the Press Council had tried to hold a dialogue with the DPR and proposed a reformulation of the criminal code.
Anggoro said that during these audiences, a number of fractions in the DPR praised the reformulations to the RKUHP proposed by the Press Council.
"Long before this we provided input, we even visited all of the DPR fractions and all of the factions said it was great", said Anggoro.
Anggoro said that during the audiences with the factions in the DPR the Press Council not only conveyed its views and criticism.
"We didn't just convey our views but also made a reformulation. At the time we conveyed that there were nine clusters and 14 articles it was praised, we were thanked. But the praise wasn't important, what was import? The final outcome", said Anggoro.
Earlier on Tuesday December 6, the DPR ratified a new Criminal Code (KUHP) during a plenary meeting at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta.
Justice and Human Rights Minister (Menkumham) Yasonna Laoly said that the new KUHP will come in to force three years after being ratified. Laoly said that the ministry will form a team to socialise the law among the public during this transition period.
"There will be (time) three years for socialisation of the KUHP. I think we will form a team from all the teams that exist, from the ministry, our team of experts which have been taking part in discussions", said Laoly at the Presidential Palace complex on Tuesday.
Legal and human rights activists have highlighted a number of articles in the KUHP which are seen as "rubber articles" such as the threat of prosecution for holding protest actions without a permit through to the offence of insulting the dignity of the president, vice president or a state institution.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Dewan Pers Sebut 60 Persen Usulan Reformulasi KUHP Mereka Ditolak DPR". An earlier and shorter version of this article was published by Tribune News on December 11.]
