Nurfika Osman – A leading graft watchdog warned on Friday that the state secrecy bill threatened to undermine any progress the country had made in cleaning up its reputation as a haven for corruption.

Teten Masduki, the secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia, said the bill would harm the country by barring public officials from revealing corruption cases.

"How can we explain to countries that have ratified the UN Declaration against Corruption that we are endorsing this bill," Teten said. "The consequence is that we are always going to be labeled a corrupt country, which will invite international criticism."

Indonesia ratified the UN declaration two years ago. Countries that have ratified the convention are scheduled to meet in Qatar this October.

Teten said Indonesia's corruption index last year was 2.6, with 10 being the least corrupt. For comparison, Malaysia's corruption index was five in 2008. "Corruption will thrive if there is no transparency in handling cases because they are considered state secrets," Teten said.

Yoseph Adi Prasetyo from the National Commission on Human Rights said the state secrecy bill also posed a threat to human rights. "If there are rights violations... the public should know about these," he said.

Yoseph said the commission opposed an article in the bill that would prevent the public from accessing information classified as a state secret for up to 30 years. "We will lose all the evidence and the suspects may escape to other countries," he said.

Agus Sudibyo, deputy director of the Science, Esthetics, and Technology Foundation, said the bill's definition of a state secret was so ambiguous that authorities could hide behind it to keep potentially damaging information from the public.