Government withdraws state secrecy bill

The government has officially ceased deliberating the controversial state secrecy bill at the House of Representatives, stating its contents needed to be further discussed with the public and civil society groups to ensure a proper balance between “security and liberty”.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono announced the government’s decision to withdraw the bill at a hearing with House lawmakers.

However, the minister only confirmed the bill’s withdrawal after Golkar legislator Marzuki Darusman asked Juwono for some clarification.

“Yes, the government wants to withdraw the bill as it is impossible to implement,” Juwono told the hearing.

Human rights and anti-graft activists have deemed the bill prone to abuses of power and corruption because of its unclear definition of state secrets.

The draconian bill also imposes a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail for leaking state secrets and the death sentence to anyone found guilty of leaking top secret information during wartime.

House legislators said they did not mind the bill being withdrawn, but were disappointed with the government’s decision.

“I believe the only reason the government withdrew the bill is because it is unhappy with the current version of the bill. We improved this bill to be very democratic, and completely different from the original draft that was very repressive,” Marzuki said.

Effendie Choirie from the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction said the government lacked knowledge about state secrecy in the first place.

“From the beginning...the government was not ready either substantially or conceptually to define state secrecy in a democracy,” he said.

Press activist Agus Sudibyo from the Science, Aesthetics and Technology Foundation, told The Jakarta Post he lauded the withdrawal of the bill.

“Common sense still prevails in the nation’s politics,” he said.

Agus urged the government to prepare a much better draft law in the future to avoid a waste of tax payers’ money.

According to the House secretariat general, a deliberation process of a bill costs between Rp 1 billion (US$100,000) and Rp 2 billion on average. (hdt)