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Govt, House accused of 'legislative crime'
The government and the lawmakers are criticized for passing controversial bills at the end of their tenure.
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Standing up for their rights: Marchers, who attended the 2019 Women’s March Jakarta at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta on Saturday, get their message across. Among the main demands of the participants are gender equality and the eradication of sexual violence. They also called on the government to pass the sexual violence eradication bill into law. (The Jakarta Post/Donny Fernando )
T
he government and the House of Representatives are being accused of having colluded to pass controversial bills in the last months of their tenure, bills that have been criticized for violating citizen rights and endangering the fight against graft.
Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) researcher Agil Oktaryal said the government and lawmakers are committing "legislative crime", which is how he refers to the maneuvers to rapidly pass certain laws in order to accommodate political deals that they have made before the start of the second term of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the inauguration of the new members of the legislative bodies.
Agil added that the passage of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law amendment, after having been stalled for years, resulted from a political trade-off over the passing of another amendment of the Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law that would allow all political parties to share in the control of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR).
“It’s a political trade; the 10 party factions were probably still split over passing the KPK revision bill, so the parties were accommodated with the passing of the MD3 revision bill, which will cause them to pass the KPK revision bill,” Agil said.
Read also: All political parties to get leadership seat in MPR
It only took six days for the House of Representatives to pass the new KPK bill into law in a plenary session on Tuesday.
A member of the House’s Commission III overseeing legal affairs, Taufiqulhadi of the NasDem Party, said there was no correlation anymore between allowing more time to hear the KPK or public opinion and their intention to pass the bill quickly. He said that as in any lawmaking process, the “political will” of the lawmakers and the government was the main factor.
