Egi Adyatama, Jakarta – Deputy Chair for Academic and Research at the Indonesia Jentera School of Law (STH), Bivitri Susanti, criticized the House of Representatives (DPR) for not including the draft of the sexual violence eradication bill (RUU TPKS) in the agenda of today's plenary session, December 16.
This seems to confirm the absence of a sense of crisis in the House regarding the emergency of sexual violence in Indonesia. "They treat this bill as only political economy parameters. There is no sense of crisis at all. So there is eventually a barter taking place in the context of political interests," said Bivitri in an online discussion, Wednesday night, December 15.
Bivitri assessed that some House members hindered the bill from entering today's plenary session because last Wednesday, the plenary had decided to include this bill as the DPR's initiative proposal.
However, until Wednesday, the House's Legislative Council (Bamus) did not hold a meeting supposed to be the final discussion before it was decided to enter the plenary meeting.
"RUU TPKS Bill is juiceless as the PPRT Bill (Protection of Domestic Workers Bill) and the Indigenous Peoples Bill. It's really juiceless as there's no benefit for DPR members, no economic value," said Bivitri.
Bivitri's suspicions were strengthened by the lack of bills produced by the DPR over the last few years. In 2017, the DPR only passed 6 bills out of 52 bills; 5 bills out of 50 bills in 2018; 14 bills out of 55 bills in 2019; and 3 bills out of 37 bills in 2020.
Moreover, most of them passed were from the open cumulative list that was related to international covenants. Bivitri opined that the only substantive bills included the amendment to the Papua Special Autonomy Law and Taxation.
"We can see from that track record that my suspicions or hypotheses may be true. We are really mad but for some DPR members, this (sexual violence eradication bill) just passes by," she said.