Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives kicked off a new sitting session on Monday with a plan to continue deliberating the mass organization bill in spite of massive protests from civil society groups.
The House had halted the deliberation of the mass organization bill in late April, a move taken to bow to mounting public pressure, especially from the country's second largest Islamic group Muhammadiyah, which threatened to blacklist any parties that supported the endorsement of the bill.
After a month of recess, 327 of the total 560 lawmakers assembled for a plenary session on Monday, during which they agreed to endorse at least 19 bills in the next 61 days, which include the bill on mass organizations, as well as one on combating deforestation.
In his speech to open the Monday plenary meeting, House Speaker Marzuki Alie said the bill on mass organization and the bill on combating deforestation were among those to be prioritized in the current sitting session.
Other topics to be discussed include the bills on halal certification, on the financial system safety net (JPSK), on local elections, on regional administration and on the accelerated development of underdevelopment regions.
"We hereby call on the public to give us constructive input for each bill so that we can produce comprehensive and good quality laws," Marzuki said.
Marzuki, a Democratic Party politician also reminded his fellow lawmakers of their poor attendance, calling on all lawmakers to better use their time to achieve the legislative target.
Separately, House deputy speaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Pramono Anung Wibowo, said that the House was aware of concerns over several "contentious" bills, including the one on mass organization. He said the House could not remove the contentious bills from the legislation program without consent from the government.
"We can only permanently halt the discussion of bill and remove it from the legislation program if it has been approved both by the House and the government. Earlier we decided to suspend talks [on the bill on mass organization and on combating deforestation] because we agreed to get more input from the public," Pramono said.
The bill on mass organization, which has been discussed by the House over the past two years, has raised oppositions from civil organizations, secular and Islamic, over the concern that it will bring back repressive government control on mass organizations as experienced in the New Order era.
In an attempt to get support from critics of the bill, a House special committee on the bill and the Home Ministry previously agreed to revise the draft in order to ensure that it would not be considered a threat to Islam.
In spite of the change, Muslim groups, including Muhammadiyah, remained adamant they would reject the bill.
Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi earlier warned that the existing laws on mass organizations are outdated. He warned that the current law, which is deemed more repressive, could be enacted unless the House passes the bill.
On Monday, Malik Haramain, who chairs the House special committee on the bill, expressed his optimism that the bill could be endorsed in the current session. He said that members of the committee had clarified contentious provisions in the bill during the recess.
"Some groups have obviously misunderstood the bill. We explained everything and cleared up any confusion. I'm confident that we can finally endorse this bill by the end of this session," Haramain said.