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Jobs Law contains 'at least two fatal errors', says legal expert
A group of legal experts reviewing the Job Creation Law has discovered "at least" two mistakes in the final draft bearing the President's signature, which spans 1,187 pages.
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Protestors march down Jl. Salemba toward Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Oct. 20, 2020. The protest march, which was held as part of a three-day rally to oppose the Jobs Law, coincided with the end of the first year of President Joko Widodo's second and final term. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he highly contested Job Creation Law that President Joko Widodo signed on Monday, contained a “fatal error” that exposed the flawed legislative process and provided stronger grounds for a judicial review at the Constitutional Court, a legal expert said on Tuesday.
Bivitri Susanti, a constitutional law expert from the Jentera School of Law in Jakarta, said that she and other legal experts reviewing the 1,187-page final draft of the law had so far found two problematic articles, Article 6 and Article 175.
She specifically pointed to Article 6, which referred to Clause 1a of Article 5 in stipulating improvements to the investment and business ecosystems by implementing a risk-based approach to business licensure, and by simplifying the basic requirements for business permits, industry-specific permits and investments.
However, Article 5 did not contain Clause 1a.
This meant that the government could not implement Article 6, nor derive an implementing regulation for the provision on business and investment climate, Bivitri told The Jakarta Poston Tuesday.
She also explained that revising or correcting the article would involve a separate legislative process and so could not be done “arbitrarily”.
“The State Secretary cannot just turn around and revise it," Bivitri underlined.
Read also: Jokowi signs Job Creation Law, making it effective amid nationwide protests
The only way to implement the problematic articles would be for the President to issue a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to revise them, she said. The Constitution allowed for Perppu to be issued on compelling and urgent matters, she added, but issuing one to counter the legal uncertainty in implementing the two articles was "debatable".
Bivitri argued that the erroneous articles were further proof of reckless, rushed and marred legislation that excluded public participation and lacked transparency.
The House of Representatives passed the controversial Jobs Law on Oct. 5 following a swift and closed deliberative process with the government. The public, civil society organizations and experts lambasted the process as “flawed”, especially when it became known that the draft law had been changed multiple times after the House approved it.
Even "normal” laws of around 70 to 100 pages would contain mistakes, Bivitri said, but these would generally be ironed out before the law was passed. Errors were therefore bound to emerge in a nearly 1,200-page law that had been deliberated in such a rushed manner.
"The ends justify all means in the issuance of this law. This has been the worst legislative process in Indonesia's history," she said.
Bivitri also noted that the errors in the legislation could strengthen ongoing efforts to challenge the law at the Constitutional Court.
The Post contacted presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman, chief expert Donny Gahral Adian of the Office of the Presidential Staff and State Secretary Setya Utama for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publishing.
