Jakarta – The removal of a Health Law clause on tobacco may have occurred within the House of Representative's internal process, the House speaker said on Friday.
"We found an administrative error. However, we still need to investigate whether the removal of the clause was deliberate," said House speaker Marzuki Ali. "Whether the removal took place in the [House] commission [overseeing health affairs] is also still unclear," he added.
Based on information obtained in a meeting with the former chairwoman of the House committee responsible for deliberating the health bill, Ribka Tjiptaning from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Marzuki said he believed the removal of the clause was an administrative error.
"Ibu Tjiptaning explained the issue was only an administrative error. However, we think we still need to probe into the matter further, and if we find the removal [of the clause] was deliberate, then someone is going to be charged," he said.
Marzuki also said that after the meeting, the House decided to set up an internal mechanism to prevent similar administrative errors from occurring in the future. "We want this mistake to be the last one," he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Coalition Against the Corruption of the Anti-tobacco clause (Kakar) said they would report a number of Health Ministry officials, suspected of being involved in the scandal, to the police as soon as possible.
The coalition consists of a number of NGOs, such as the Indonesian Consumers Association (YLKI), Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Indonesian Tobacco Control Network (ITCN) and the National Commission for Child Protection.
"We believe there are strong indications the Health Ministry was involved," Tulus Abadi of the YLKI said, as quoted by state news agency Antara on Friday.
One of the coalition members, former chairman of the Indonesian Doctor Association (IDI), Kartono Muhammad, said Kakar would announce the names of the suspected officials in the near future.
"We suspect officials [at the Health Ministry] were involved because the ministry was responsible for checking the health bill's final draft before it was delivered to the President to be signed," he said.
"It is also a fact that the Health Ministry does not have the authority to change any clause or paragraph in the bill during its final checking."
Kartono also demanded National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri be more proactive in investigating the scandal and capture the perpetrators as soon as possible.
"If the police remain silent, then I am afraid there will more cases like this one in the future. Let's not make removing paragraphs of laws a habit," he said.
Constitutional Court chief Mahfud M.D. previously said that if investigations found the removal was deliberate, the perpetrators would face criminal charges and should be given the maximum punishment due to the severity of the manipulation.