Jakarta – Antigraft activists are urging the House of Representatives to not pass the mass organizations bill into law as it would limit people's freedom of of expression.

The House is slated to pass the bill in a plenary session on July 2. These activists, instead, are urging the House to assist in government efforts to eradicate graft.

"The thinking that Indonesia needs this law is just bulk nonsense," Erwin Natosmal Oemar, a researcher at the Indonesian Legal Roundtable, told a press conference on Saturday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.

According to Erwin, the bill contains more political hidden agenda than transparent regulation. He added that the government and the House wanted to go back to the New Order era where political stability meant everything and that those who were critical of the government would be sent to prison. These activists have long suspected that this mass organizations bill was nothing but a means to demolish democracy.

Echoing Erwin, Hifazil Alim, a researcher at the Center for Anticorruption Studies (Pukat) at Gajah Mada University (UGM) said that corruption eradication would be slowly put to rest if people did nothing to stop efforts to pass the bill into law.

"Many activists have been very critical of corruption eradication in the country. We cannot expect to do more if this bill passed into law." (hrl/dic)