Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Politicians, political analysts and activists have told the government to revise a 1999 law on crimes against the state, which they said had lost all relevancy in the reform era.
They were responding here Wednesday to the burning by the government of school textbooks that questioned the official narrative of the failed 1965 coup blamed on communists.
Yasonna Hasudungan Laoly, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and Effendy Choirie, who leads the National Awakening Party (PKB) at the House of Representatives, said law was repressive and needed to be brought into line with the new political realities of the reform era.
They said the law was the product of an authoritarian mind-set that was no longer relevant. "I will bring this issue up at an upcoming hearing with the Attorney General's Office, which is in charge of enforcing the law," said Yasonna, also a member of the House's law commission.
The law carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence for anyone convicted of the adoption or dissemination of communism.
In the last two months, the Attorney General's Office has destroyed thousands of Indonesian history textbooks for failing to clearly identify the now-banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as being behind the failed Sept. 30, 1965, coup.
Yasonna said the destruction of the textbooks was a violation of free speech. He also said the books were simply addressing some of the controversies that continue to surround the coup attempt. "I don't believe the textbooks are aimed at disseminating communism. Anyway, all citizens have the intellectual right to express their opinions," he said.
Effendy hinted that competition among book publishers may have had something to do with the destruction of textbooks, with publishers using the Attorney General's Office to undercut their rivals. "Many banned books written by the late Pramoedya Ananta Toer are on sale in bookstores in Jakarta but none have been seized. Only certain textbooks have been confiscated," he said.
Rival G. Ahmad, advocacy coordinator at the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Study, said the 1999 law and a relevant decree from the People's Consultative Assembly should be brought to the Constitutional Court for review because they were not in line with the 1945 Constitution.
"The government has made these laws tools to prevent citizens from seeking the truth behind the bloody movement and to prevent historians from rewriting Indonesian history," he said.
J Kristiadi, a political analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the government should not prevent citizens from expressing opinions. He said laws and regulations could not defeat communism.
"Communism can't be banished by torching textbooks; it can be done by improving the people's social welfare," he said.