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Dementor’s kiss: Reflecting on our legislation process
The bills, initiated either by the House or the government, testify a decline in the quality of democratic and good governance values.
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Severe migraine: A student protester holds up a poster based on the packaging design of a headache medicine on Thursday, October 8. 2020 during a demonstration on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta. The poster reads: “The omnibus law causes headaches, environmental damage, workers’ oppression.” JP/Seto Wardhana (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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atching the escalation of resistance against the omnibus Job Creation Law and other legislation products, I cannot help but be reminded of the Dementors featured in the Harry Potter novels. Dementors are executioners of the notorious Azkaban prison who will suck up happiness, good memories and hope from anyone that step in their path.
What is left in a prisoner’s soul is the memory of the worst that they have experienced. In Harry Potter’s case, it is the memory of his parents’ murder at the hands of Lord Voldemort.
In a similar way, the country’s legislative process over the past year has swallowed the happiness and hopes of the people. In September last year, students took to streets in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung in West Java, Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi and many parts of the country in a movement dubbed #ReformasiDikorupsi (#ReformCorrupted) to reject a planned revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, Criminal Code and other laws accused of undermining democracy. A year went by and we have not changed much.
By the time you read this, the House of Representatives has passed not only the controversial omnibus Job Creation Law but other laws as well, including a revision of the Constitutional Court Law and the Mining Law, which were debated while the country was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting on this suspicious legislative process that gave birth to the key laws, what lessons can we learn?
Since 2018, the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has practiced so-called executive illiberalism (Aspinall and Mietzner, 2019) or part of an “authoritarian turn” (Power, 2018). Despite the differences, the two definitions point to similar characters, which range from the erosion of democratic values by weakening the accountability of state institutions, to creating laws with minimum public participation.
It took the House two months to revise the KPK Law amid a wave of public rejection. Student rallies opposing the revision claimed two lives by live bullets and led to film director Dandhy Laksono and journalist Ananda Badudu being detained by the police for filming the protests.
One year on, we are experiencing déjà vu. Amid the pandemic, which has infected hundreds of thousands of people and killed thousands more, a number of bills were legislated with minimum public participation. The pandemic, which requires social distancing, was used to justify the lack of public access to the deliberation of the bills.
