Jakarta – The House of Representatives has finally resolved more than 200 issues in the controversial state secrecy bill with the government, despite requests from civil society groups to stop the bill deliberation.
The final issue that the House and the government settled during a meeting Friday was the stipulation on the maximum penalty for corporations should they obtain information considered state secrets.
The House and the government agreed that corporations found responsible for leaking state secrets are to pay a maximum of Rp 100 billion (US$9.94 million) in fines, while the minimum fine is Rp 50 billion.
An expert on politics and ideology from the Defense Ministry, Agus Brotosusilo, said the government had set a such a large fine to ensure that foreign corporations would feel a significant impact should they breach the law and leak the country's state secrets.
"I want everyone to understand that the 'corporations' term does not always mean domestic corporations, but foreign ones as well," he said.
House legislators, who at first seemingly objected to the large fines, succumbed easily to Agus' explanation and decided to agree to the terms.
A legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN), Djoko Susilo, even suggested an additional stipulation, saying that any corporation proved to have leaked state secrets should be closed down
Djoko's suggestion was accepted by the forum, led by the Golkar Party's Theo L. Sambuaga, the chairman of the House Commission I overseeing defense, intelligence and foreign affairs.
Agus Sudibyo, a press freedom activist and deputy director of the Science, Aesthetics and Technology Foundation, told The Jakarta Post he regretted the House decision to accelerate the deliberation of the bill without making any significant changes.
"The House and the government did not exclude media corporations from the bill," he said. "This confirms our worries, as press and media activists, that this bill has no other intention than to limit press freedom."
Agus said he noted that there was unfairness when he compared the state secrecy bill with the already endorsed Public Information Law.
"In the Public Information Law, it is stipulated that the minimum punishment for state officials who neglect their jobs and cause harm to the public is a two-year imprisonment," he said.
"However, the state secrecy bill stipulates that a reporter, for example, is punishable with at least a four-year imprisonment should he or she obtain information that is considered a state secret. This shows that the public interest is overridden by the state's interest to keep its information secret and inaccessible to the public."
Agus said the only hope now to stop the bill from being passed into law was to increase public pressure more and more.
"This bill can only be cancelled if all civil elements stand together and pressure President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the government and the House from passing it into law. I believe we can still do that," he said.
"In the past, civil society ele-ments were divided over the deliberation of controversial bills, such as the Pornography Law, but in this case, the sentiments of rejection are the same for all elements," he added. (hdt)