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undreds of activists from various mass organizations gathered at the House of Representatives on Tuesday to protest the controversial mass organizations bill, which is slated to be passed into law next month.

The rally’s participants, which included members of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Imparsial, the Institute for Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and the Prosperous Labor Federation (KSB), claimed the bill would deny the right to freedom of assembly and expression.

“The bill will undermine the country’s flourishing democracy. We already have legislation to use as legal basis to act against violent groups,” Kontras director Haris Azhar, representing the protesters, told House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santosa and members of a special committee charged with the bill’s deliberation.

 The groups said the current draft bill lacked a precise definition of mass groups that would avoid the multiple interpretations used by government officials to serve their political interests.

Committee chairman Abdul Malik Haramain told protesters that the bill’s deliberation would continue, arguing that the bill was no threat to freedom.

“We already arranged discussions with several groups including the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] before making the draft bill. So, this is the best we have,” Malik of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said.

Meanwhile, Priyo emphasized that the bill on mass groups was necessary to replace the existing Law No. 8/1985, which according to Priyo, is
repressive.