Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Camelia Pasandaran & Dessy Sagita – Kicking off its frantic final weeks, a plenary session of the House of Representatives on Monday approved four bills, a new record for a legislature scrambling to make good on its lawmaking duties.
With only about a third of lawmakers attending, the House endorsed the antinarcotics, health, immigration and hajj bills in short order.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Matalatta, who represented the government, said the antinarcotics bill would be a useful legal basis for the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to combat the illegal drug trade. "We need this law to help our children and to protect future generations from drugs," he said.
But Asmin Fransisca, from the Indonesian Coalition for Drug Policy Reform, said the bill's deliberation had not been transparent enough and it still regarded drug users as criminals, which contradicted human rights.
"The best solution for curing drug abuse is with treatment, not by viewing it as a crime that needs to be punished," she said. The ICDPR also opposes the death penalty as mandated in the bill, saying civilized countries no longer had capital punishment.
Two of the House's 10 political factions had reservations about an article in the health bill regarding abortion. The Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) consented to abortion but only when the mother's life was at risk, while the Reform Star Party (PBR) was against the procedure altogether.
The legislation allows abortion for victims of rape or when the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. For rape cases, the abortion must be approved by an official body. "If the counseling body forbids the abortion, then it cannot be conducted," said Ribka Tjiptaning, a legislator who helped draft the bill.
Kartono Muhammad, chairman of the Healthy Indonesia Coalition, said that regardless of its flaws, the health bill had been on the cards for almost nine years and was long overdue. "It is very urgent for the country to have this health bill. If we wait until it's perfect, it won't be endorsed anytime soon," he said.
Hasbulah Thabrany, a University of Indonesia public health expert, echoed Kartono's sentiments, saying: "We can't expect the bill to be 100 percent ready. That's not going to happen." However, he did add that the bill was likely to be sloppy because it was rushed so a judicial review might be needed.
The hajj bill was based on the government regulation in lieu of law issued earlier this year to revise a 2008 law that required special passports for pilgrims.
"This is a quick adjustment to accommodate the Saudi Arabian government, which has ruled that from 2009 hajj pilgrims should use international standard passports," said Abdul Hakam Naja, the head of House Commission VIII for religious affairs.
The immigration bill includes measures to curb illegal immigration, terrorism, money laundering and people trafficking, and makes "fake marriages" to obtain Indonesian citizenship a crime.
The plenary meeting was suspended for more than an hour after only 180 of 550 legislators attended the opening. The attendance did not increase much but the session went ahead anyway.
Audy Wuisang, from Pelita Harapan University, slammed the last-minute rush of bills. "Who will be responsible for all the problems created by the House's poor performance?" he said. "They should stop trying to produce instant laws because they will only become burdens."