26 February - 4 March 2018 - 16-new-min

26 February - 4 March, 2018 5
World
A
NEW DELHI TIMES
Indonesia Quietly Passes Law to Quash
Criticism of Politicians
s many Indonesians turn their attention
to the potential criminalization of
sexual acts between homosexuals and
extramarital sex in the nation’s revised
criminal code, its house of representatives
has quietly passed another controversial
but less publicized piece of legislation: the
revised Law on Representative Assemblies,
known as the MD3 law, which critics say will
hamper criticism of Indonesian politicians
and reduce their accountability.
The law will allow parliament representatives
to press charges against those who
“undermine its honor or that of its members.”
It also stipulates that investigations into
members of parliament must be approved
by the House Ethics Council. A primary
target of the new law will likely be the
KPK, Indonesia’s beleaguered corruption
eradication commission.
An online petition to counter the amendments
from groups like Indonesia Corruption
Watch and the Association for Elections and
Democracy has gathered more than 170,000
signatures, but the amendments can likely
only be overturned by a Constitutional Court
ruling.
The amendments were also supported by
eight political parties, including the ruling
Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP,
of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi”
Widodo.
The PDIP could not be immediately reached
for comment. Its members have been
publicly for the speedy passage of MD3 for
months.
The United Development Party (PPP)
and National Democratic (NasDem) party
protested the proposal with a walkout, but
they were outvoted.
“Indonesia’s parliament is one of the least
trusted state institutions,” said Andreas
Harsono, a senior researcher with Human
Rights Watch in Jakarta. “It does not help
that they passed such a repressive law. It’s
going to create more and more problems in
Indonesia.”
Late pushback
The uproar over the proposed criminal
code revisions may have distracted public
attention from the anti-democratic impact
of the MD3 amendments, said Ian Wilson,
a politics researcher at Murdoch University
in Australia.
“The polarizing debate around the social
and moral implications of the RKUHP
provided a distraction from greater scrutiny
of the other packets of legislation, including
India’s only International Newspaper
the MD3 law, and consumed the energies
of watchdog and civil society advocacy
groups,” said Wilson.
“It’s safe to assume the timing was at least
partially intentional. The most controversial
elements of the MD3 law are also relatively
well ‘hidden’ within the broader legislative
packet. It’s a fairly well practiced stratagem
in Indonesia.”
Last week, the Forum on Law and
Constitutional Studies (FKHK) filed a petition
against the MD3 Law to the Constitutional
Court, arguing that articles like summoning
citizens by force are not in line with the
Indonesian constitution.
“The main way to oppose this measure is
through the Constitutional Court,” said
Yohanes Sulaiman, a defense lecturer at
General Achmad Yani University. “But I’m
not sure how much the Constitutional Court
is willing to strike this down, because it
had such broad support across parties. Plus,
we’re going into an election year and they
may not want to rock the boat.”
“The other way [to resist], which is more
difficult, would be for citizens to organize,
and keep getting arrested,” said Sulaiman.
“If they keep resisting, they can see how far
Parliament is willing to push enforcement of
the law.”
Insulation from criticism
“Most politicians [around the world] know
that they should have thick skin. Not in
Jakarta,” said Harsono. In recent years,
many citizens have faced legal troubles after
criticizing politicians on social media.
“The House is just a bunch of people who
are really proud and sure of themselves,”
said Sulaiman. “Of course this will be a way
for them to attack their critics.”
On top of that, he said, the House has been
getting antsy over increased pressure from
the KPK, which scored a major coup last year
by managing to get the improbably corrupt
Speaker of the House, Setya Novanto [he
has been implicated in at least eight different
cases] into their custody.
“It is kind of difficult to say who the exact
targets will be,” said Sulaiman, although
the KPK seems like a leading contender.
“It is worded very ambiguously, in typical
Indonesian style.”
The MD3 law can be seen as an attempt by
the House to consolidate its power while
public opinion of it is at a historic low.
“The MD3 law is quite extraordinary in the
extent to which it grants the DPR powers
comparable to, and even exceeding, that of
the judiciary; a kind of parallel system of
sorts,” said Wilson.
“The justification given that it is intended
to protect the good name of the parliament
from inappropriate name-calling makes
little sense in the current political climate,
and will undoubtedly increaser the public
perception of it as a self-serving institution.”
Wilson suggested that undermining public
confidence in the parliamentary system in
this way might even increase the appeal
of democratic “alternatives,” including
Islamists.
Indonesian journalists have also expressed
dismay over the amendments, which will
further diminish their already curtailed press
freedoms.
“Members of Parliament can certainly argue
that the amendments have no intention
of targeting journalists. But no one can
guarantee that in its implementation,” said
Abdul Manan, head of the Alliance of
Independent Journalists. “The subjective
nature of the wording means that journalists
can easily be ensnared for doing their job,
and the law can become another tool with
which to suppress or intimidate the press.”
Credit : Voice of America (VOA)
Turkey renames US
Embassy street after
T
Syria offensive
urkish authorities have renamed a
street where the U.S. Embassy is
located with the name of Turkey’s military
offensive in Syria that had led to tensions
between the allies.
Ankara municipal workers put up the new
sign in Turkish for Olive Branch Street,
replacing the one named after late Ankara
governor Nevzat Tandogan.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch
last month to drive a Syrian Kurdish militia
out of northwest Syria. The militia group is a
major U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State
group. Turkey regards them as terrorists.
When asked last week about the upcoming
name change, U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that
“they can call it whatever they want. As
long as it’s in accordance with their own law,
we’re fine with that.”
In November, Turkey renamed the street
where the United Arab Emirates has its
embassy after a long-dead Ottoman military
commander. It was a reaction to an Emirati
minister’s retweet of a claim that the Turkish
president’s “forefathers” pillaged the holy
city of Medina.
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
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