The present parliament will likely delay passing the controversial state secrecy bill until next year, due to opposition from civil society groups.
Theo L. Sambuaga, chairman of the House working committee deliberating the bill said his committee had no objection to stop deliberating the bill for now if the government wanted to give more time for public consultations, including with civil society groups, to help avoid any problems with its enforcement.
" If the government says that the bill's substance still contains many issues and that the deliberation should be halted and its endorsement should be delayed, then we can get along with that" he told reporters Tuesday.
Theo said the House, together with the government, had completed at least 80 percent of the deliberations on the controversial bill.
"In our meetings so far, we have also changed at least 60 percent of the bill's substance to accommodate the public's political concerns. The bill originally contained many vague and flexible articles, *and* we then managed to go into more detail and *better* definitions to avoid any confusion in its enforcement," he said.
Theo was responding to a statement from State Secretary Minister Hatta Radjasa on Monday.
Hatta said because of fears arising among the general public about whether the bill would effectively mean a return to an authoritarian regime, the government had decided not to push for the bill's endorsement this year and to make a further assessment on the extent of the need for the bill.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng and presidential legal advisor Denny Indrayana said Monday that the President preferred the House to delay endorsing the bill this month to avoid problems with future enforcement, given some contentious parts.
The bill, which drew strong opposition from human rights and press freedom activists and anti-corruption watchdogs, gave no clear-cut definitions of state secrets but specified stiff punishments for public officials and firms leaking state secrets. The bill threatens fines of between Rp 50 billion and Rp 100 billion to be imposed upon firms found guilty of violations.
It also threatens individuals found guilty of leaking highly secret information during wartime with the death penalty.
Andreas Pareira, a member of the working commission from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction, said that a lesson could be learned from the government's current position.
"I hope that this is a sign that the government can finally learn that deliberating a bill, which has sensitive substance like this, cannot be done in a rush," he said.
"However, this lesson comes at a very expensive price that we have to pay. This will be recorded in history," he added.
According to data at the House's Secretariat General, the deliberation of a bill could cost between Rp 1 billion and Rp 2 billion depending on its complexity.
Andreas regretted the recent statement of Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono who blamed the House for the rushed deliberation of the bill, saying the committee and minister could discuss it together and the House *should not have* a vested interest on the timing.
Democratic Party faction Chairman Syarief Hassan said that his faction had helped to amend contentious parts of the bill after observing the increasing opposition from the general public. (hdt)
