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Scientists face harsh penalties
The House of Representatives has passed into law a bill aimed at protecting the country’s rich natural resources from the threat of biopiracy by imposing harsh penalties — including hefty fines and prison sentences — on recalcitrant foreign researchers
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span>The House of Representatives has passed into law a bill aimed at protecting the country’s rich natural resources from the threat of biopiracy by imposing harsh penalties — including hefty fines and prison sentences — on recalcitrant foreign researchers.
Local scientists, however, fear that the punishments are “too excessive” and that the law could end up limiting academic freedom and thus hinder science.
The law on the national system of science and technology, enacted on Tuesday, allows the government to file criminal charges against foreign scientists accused of breaking research rules.
The law carries several punishments, including up to a two-year prison term and a fine of up to Rp 2 billion (US$143,564) for foreign scientists caught stealing biodiversity samples — such as insects or plants — from
Indonesia.
It stipulates that foreign scientists are strictly forbidden from moving biodiversity materials, local specimens, or social and culture assets in physical or digital form as long as the material test could be done in Indonesia.
“It is logical to formulate this regulation because Indonesia’s biodiversity is our wealth that needs to be protected,” Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Ledia Hanifa said.
Ledia said local and foreign scientists must have a material transfer agreement (MTA) in order to take biodiversity samples and conduct research in another country, adding that if they failed to take part in the MTA then they would be subject to administrative and criminal sanctions.
Muhammad Dimyati, the director general for research and development at the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry, lauded the passing of the bill, saying that there were many foreign scientists who had violated the MTA agreement.
“There were many cases in which foreign scientists used the visa on arrival and took biodiversity samples without any agreement. For instance, a lot of forest animals were taken [by foreigners] but fortunately they were caught by immigration officials.”
The law, however, has sparked concern among scientists.
Berry Juliandi of the Indonesian Young Academy of Science argued that the criminal sanctions would discourage foreign scientist who wished to conduct research in Indonesia.
The government, he said, had the right to be concerned about the threat of biopiracy following cases of theft of valuable biodiversity samples by foreign researchers in the past few years.
“However, the solution is not to impose criminal charges on foreign scientists, but to ease the process of acquiring a research permit,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The criminal sanctions, Berry argued, were also redundant because several other regulations already covered it, such as the Criminal Code and Higher Education Ministerial Regulation No. 14/2017, which stipulates study fields that are not recommended for foreign scholars.
“The current regulation [on acquiring a research permit] is a complicated process involving many institutions, there should be a one-door system in the ministry that speeds up the process.”
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Sciences Academy (AIPI) said the law could undermine the nation’s efforts to boost research collaborations with foreign parties.
“[The law] could make the research ecosystem in Indonesia more closed, while Malaysia and Singapore are more open to foreign researchers and that [policy] contributes significantly to the sciences,” said AIPI secretary-general Chairil Abdini.
He further argued that the excessive punishments stipulated in the law, not just for biopiracy but also for other crimes, could harm academic freedom.
The law stipulates that any foreigners conducting research without a permit could face a fine of up to Rp 4 billion and would be blacklisted for up to five years.
If a local or foreign researcher causes damage to invaluable objects or harms or causes the death of people involved in their research, they would be subject to criminal charges carrying a prison term of between two to seven years and a fine of between Rp 3 billion and Rp 7 billion.
It also states that anyone conducting “high-risk or dangerous” research must first get a permit from the government, adding that if failing to do so, the researcher would be subject to a one-year jail term and a fine of up to Rp 2 billion.
National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Andi Yuliani Paris said there were two types of research that were subject to criminal charges in the law, namely high-risk and dangerous research.
High risk research, she said, was research that could destroy the environment, while dangerous research was research that may harm somebody’s life.
Despite the harsh penalties, Andi played down the concerns that it would discourage foreign scientists from conducting research in Indonesia.
“Researchers do not have to worry [as long as] they possess ethical clearance [from the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry].” (awa)
