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House to resume deliberations on problematic bills, including Criminal Code bill
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Illustration of the Senayan legislative complex. (Shutterstock/-)
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s the House of Representatives set a new membership structure for its commissions and bodies on Tuesday, it is expected to immediately start deliberations on problematic bills that had been postponed, including the Criminal Code (KUHP) bill.
At the end of the previous sitting period, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the House agreed to postpone deliberations on the KUHP bill and three other bills, namely the correctional procedures bill, land bill and mining bill, following nationwide student rallies in September demanding that the government and the House halt the passage of the problematic bills.
Many of the protests ended with clashes between protesters and the police, including in Jakarta, Jambi and Medan, North Sumatra. Five students died after taking part in the protests.
However, whether several articles deemed problematic in the bills are revised or scrapped remains unclear.
House Commission III overseeing legal affairs deputy chairman Desmond J. Mahesa, of the Gerindra Party, said the House and the government did not need to reopen deliberations if unfinished bills had been resolved. Therefore, the KUHP bill and correctional procedures bill only needed to be ratified in a plenary session, he said.
“The process should be according to the law […] If we unpack the KUHP bill and correctional procedures bill, then it is a violation because we have finished the process," Desmond said on Tuesday.
According to the revision of Law No. 13/2011 on the rule-making process, the carry-over procedure for unfinished bills allowed for new lawmakers to continue deliberating bills without having to go back to square one.
