Markus Junianto Sihaloho – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was under strong pressure on Monday to intervene in the drafting process of the controversial state secrecy bill by ordering the Defense Ministry to postpone deliberations.
Speaking in Jakarta, Leo Batubara, deputy chairman of the Press Council, claimed that "invisible hands" were at play to direct the country back towards its authoritarian past through the endorsement of bills such as the state secrecy bill and the Anti-Corruption Court bill.
Such bills would hamper the democracy obtained by reform in 1998, which demanded freedom, transparency and accountability, he said.
"If President SBY is still committed to good governance, anti-corruption, freedom of the press, accountability and transparency principles, then he must do something to stop the deliberation of this bill," Batubara said.
"He has the right to intervene in the drafting process. All ministers responsible for drafting the bills are his subordinates," he said.
Officials tasked with drafting the bill announced that they had finished and would be ready to bring it to parliament in a plenary meeting at the end of this month.
Under the proposed legislation, anyone in the possession of or found to have any way distributed any information, object or activity classified as a state secret would face a minimum of four years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 5 billion ($505,000).
The bill defines a state secret as any information, including activity and object, that has been officially declared confidential by the president.
State secrets would fall into three categories: "top secret," "secret" and "limited secret."
The draft also calls for harsher penalties for government officials found guilty of leaking state secrets. Under the proposed legislation, officials would face up to a third more jail time for the offense than civilians.
Anyone caught revealing state secrets during times of war could be sentenced to death.
Batubara said such regulations would kill freedom of the press, with no journalists daring to conduct investigative work. If the Parliament passes the bill at the end of this month, he said, the Press Council would file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court.
"Many articles in the bill are against Article 28F of the Constitution that guarantees citizens' rights to obtain and use information," Batubara said.
Effendy Choirie, a lawmaker who was part of the bill drafting process, denied the claims. "The bill gives a clear limit because our anti-corruption, good governance and freedom of the press principles must always exist," Effendy said.