Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had asked for the withdrawal in order to fix contentious articles in the bill and make sure the revised bill would not spark challenges when the new House of Representatives, whose term will begin on Oct. 1, deliberates it.

A far different playing field awaits the government's second attempt. With Yudhoyono's grand coalition securing the majority of seats at the new House, the next government will find it easy to get legislators to rubber-stamp the state secrecy bill, regardless of its contents. If this happens, the tyranny of the majority will reign, posing a danger to democracy the way a dictatorship of the minority would.

It is therefore mandatory for civil society groups to remain critical of the government's graceful exit concerning the state secrecy bill. Nobody knows if the government is taking a step back for a big leap forward.

The bill has spread fear from the get-go, with human rights and anticorruption activists warning that it could lead to abuses of power and inequality before the law.

It stipulates that state secrets can only be used as evidence to charge people leaking such information. However, if such information implicates a government official, then it cannot be used to bring them to justice.

The bill also says that anyone involved in the activities of state secrecy cannot be charged in court for doing their jobs, except in the case of gross human rights violations and corruption. However, since the disclosure of state secrets can only take place between five and 30 years after the event, evidence regarding the violations will most likely have disappeared or changed, and the perpetrators may have fled overseas or promoted to positions that make them even more untouchable.

The definition of state secrecy is also open to a wide range of interpretations, paving the way for it to be abused for unaccountable state operations.

For the sake of unity and safety of the unitary state of Indonesia, certain information must be classified and is kept secret from the public, but it cannot sacrifice the people's hard-won democracy.

Only over the past decade has Indonesia regained its freedom from the shackles of government control; we cannot let any individual or group turn back the clock for the sake of security or stability.

Despite international recognition of Indonesia as the third-largest democracy in the world, the state secrecy bill proves that democracy here remains a concept or perhaps mere paperwork, rather than a deep-rooted culture.

That many politicians have openly recalled the good old days serves a warning that the New Order remains alive, perhaps not in a tangible shape, such as political parties or groups, but in a more dangerous and insidious form as a way of thinking. The state secrecy bill that has been withdrawn obviously copies and pastes the New Order frame of mind.

If the next government stakes a claim to democracy, it will have to start over the drafting of a state secrecy bill that involves civil society groups. Or else it can just throw the bill into the garbage can and seek an amendment to the freedom of information law to facilitate the importance of state secrets.

The secrecy bill is a lesson for the government of today and tomorrow not to play with fire. We don't know when, but it will get burned.

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