M

uhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization, filed for a judicial review on Thursday, challenging the 2009 Hospitals Law, arguing that it violates their right to provide nonprofit health services to the public.

Muhammadiyah seeks a review at the Constitutional Court of Article 7 Paragraph 4 of the law that stipulates hospitals can only be set up by specific private legal entities active only in the hospital business, and Article 21 that states all private hospitals must be run by profit-oriented legal entities in the form of companies or limited companies.

Muhammadiyah, which runs thousands of schools, universities, hospitals and medical clinics across the country, has also requested that the Court scrap several other articles, including 17 and 62.

Article 17 means that hospital permits can only be issued to profit-oriented entities and that existing permits may be revoked or refused renewal. Individuals who deliberately set up hospitals without a permit may face two years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 5 billion (US$514,720), according to Article 62.

Syafiq A. Mughni, a Muhammadiyah executive overseeing public health and welfare, said during its first hearing on Thursday that Muhammadiyah had a great responsibility to provide health services for the public. 'The public has given us a mandate to provide health services,' he said.

Muhammadiyah currently runs 78 hospitals which already have permits and legal status to operate, but the law could put this in jeopardy.

The plaintiffs also argue that creating a new entity under the law could be problematic for Muhammadiyah.

'We can't allow these hospitals fall outside of Muhammadiyah legal ownership, because would lose many of our assets,' Syafiq said.

Syaiful Bakhri, a lawyer representing Muhammadiyah, believes that the law favored a 'liberalization of the hospital business which could undermined the existence of non-profit hospitals'.

Muhammadiyah now faces problems when trying to renew permits with officials from the Health Ministry and worrying that they could be charged with violating the law.

Syaiful added that Muhammadiyah faced the prospect of paying penalties for running charitable hospitals as the law did not recognize such an concept.

The House of Representatives passed the hospital bill into law in September 2009, granting the government the authority to oversee private hospitals and revoke their licenses in case of violation.

Former health minister Siti Fadillah Supari declared at the time that the law would provide better access to health services at hospitals for everyone, rejecting allegations the hospital law would benefit private hospitals.