Jakarta – Lawmakers have acknowledged there are numerous problematic articles in the intelligence bill that require further deliberation.
"Right now, House [of Representatives] members are still working to get input from academics, stakeholders and intelligence institutions," Kemal Azis Stamboel, the chairman of the House's Commission I on security, diplomacy and information, said over the weekend.
He said the current state of the bill raised several human rights issues.
"The purpose of the law is still being questioned," he said. "People still worry about multiple interpretations of some provisions. Some are worried about the return of old practices when state institutions abused their authorities to kidnap [government critics]."
Kemal might have been referring to events that preceded the fall of former president Soeharto, when the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) kidnapped political activists. A dozen or so of them remain missing to this day.
Legislator Paula Sinjal of the Democratic Party said the extent of the State Intelligence Agency's authority to arrest terrorist suspects was also a crucial issue being hotly debated.
"Critics say that the provisions [on the agency's power to arrest] are against civil rights and evoke the bitter past when democratic movements were suppressed for the sake of national stability. They are afraid that the law could be abused to silence democracy advocates," she said.
Concern about the return of Soeharto-era repression was also voiced by legislator Tubagus Hasanuddin from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). He said the decision to grant intelligence officers the power to conduct covert arrests was also a major issue in the bill.
Pro-democracy advocates insist arrests should be conducted openly with suspects issued with warrants and allowed legal representation during questioning.
"But the bill justifies covert arrests in intelligence operations... This New Order [Soeharto] era tactic worries us [legislators] and the public alike," he added.
Human rights campaigner Usman Hamid from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence agreed the intelligence bill was wide open to human rights abuses and acts of repression.
"The intelligence bill has to be scrapped," he said. "Because there are many things in there that mix up the authorities of law enforcement agencies with those of the intelligence agency," he said.
"There are many dangerous articles that can give rise to violations of human rights because they give the intelligence agency the right to wiretap an individual's communications, such as emails, letters, and freeze an individual's [bank] account," he added.
Usman said he was not convinced the bill – if passed into law – would prove effective against terrorism in Indonesia.
"Terrorism can be curbed by improving coordination between law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agency," he said.
"Trying to stop terrorism by shifting the authority of law enforcement agencies to the intelligence agency will not work," he said. "It will merely cause an accumulation of power and spark conflicts between the two agencies," he added. (map)