Jakarta – Two years have passed since the Ministry of Home Affairs submitted a bill to revise the law on mass organizations, but the House of Representatives had still not deliberated on it, a ministry official said.

"We feel there are several articles in the law that urgently need to be revised in order to meet the demands posed by recent events," the director general for politics and national unity at the ministry, Sudarsono, told The Jakarta Post last week.

The issue of mass organizations returned to public attention after a recent brawl between the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) and the Association of Betawi Families (IKB) in Kebayoran Lama market.

The current law on mass organizations failed to stipulate punishments that would deter mass organizations from violence, Sudarsono said.

"In the (new) bill, we would be encouraging people to file class actions directly to district courts if there are any mass organizations disturbing public order and security," he said.

The existing 1985 law on mass organizations allows the government to freeze the activities of mass organizations and disband them if they are found to disturb public order and security.

But the law does not stipulate further actions that could be taken after an organization was frozen or disbanded.

A member of the House's commission II overseeing home affairs, Jamaludin Karim, contradicted Sudarsono, saying the Home Affairs Ministry only handed over the bill this year. "We just received the draft from the ministry and plan to deliberate on it in early June," he said.

Last week's brawl in Kebayoran Lama market over control of parking fees and the local protection racket ended in the deaths of two FBR members, Ade Sulishadi, 24, and Syarifudin Juhri, 21.

Jamaludin said he agreed with the additional of punishments proposed by the ministry. But he also said the government needed to strengthen law enforcement. "(The government) must see the Kebayoran Lama brawl as a result of the government's own weak law enforcement," he said.

Jakarta governor Sutiyoso said earlier he was concerned by the gang brawl and had given serious thought to freezing the activities of mass organizations that jeopardized public safety.

FBR spokesman Fajri Hussein said he welcomed the initiative to revise the current mass organizations law. "I hope the government doesn't just look at the Kebayoran Lama incident in isolation. We get involved in violence like that or brawls because we're fighting for something we believe in," he said. Fajri said his group was independent and had never asked for government money.