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Dems to file petition if govt does not revise mass organizations law: SBY
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo meets with his predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a Democratic Party chairman, at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on March 9. (State palace/Laily Rachev)
T
he Democratic Party is prepared to file a petition against the government if the latter does not revise the 2017 Mass Organizations Law, party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said.
The House of Representatives passed on Tuesday the 2017 government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on mass organizations, which replaces the 2013 Perppu on mass organizations.
Critics have said that the 2017 law violates the constitutional right to assemble because it gives the government the power to disband organizations without due process of law.
Read also: EDITORIAL: The state's Perppu blank check
The Democratic Party backed the Perppu under the condition that some provisions be revised immediately should it be passed into law. The Perppu was supported by seven of nine House parties.
“What if the government breaks its promise [...] and does not make a revision [to the law]?” Yudhoyono, a former president, said on the party’s website.
“If that happens, the Dems would issue a political petition."
The government previously used the Perppu to disband Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), a pan-Islamic organization wanting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia.
Critics say the regulation could also be used to silent other organizations, religious or secular, considered to have contradicted the national ideology of Pancasila.
Protesters hit the streets in protest, saying the law was a setback to the world’s third largest democracy. (bbs)
