Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi responded to mounting calls that the government dissolve violent mass organizations, by challenging legislators to revise existing laws.
The 1985 Mass Organizations Law, he said, did not give the government the authority to disband hard-line groups committing acts of violence.
"The law guarantees freedom of association and speech, even if the groups launch violent raids. If the public demands regulation to change the current situation, the House of Representatives must revise the law," Gamawan told The Jakarta Post on Friday, commenting on increasing public unrest over the violent conduct of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).
Media outlets have reported the acts of violence committed by the group in their raids on gambling dens, brothels and non-Muslim events in the past few years. In the latest incident last month, people clad in FPI gear forcibly broke up a meeting attended by legislators Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Ribka Tjiptaning of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Banyuwangi, East Java.
Gamawan said his role as home minister would allow him to issue three warnings before submitting a recommendation to the Supreme Court to disband the group, as stipulated by law.
"We have so far issued the first warning to the organization when it forcibly disbanded a protest organized by pluralist activists and students at the National Monument in 2008," he said. "But afterwards, there were no more incidents so that we didn't issue a second or third warning."
PDI-P legislator Gandjar Pranowo, who is also deputy chairman of the House Commission II on home affairs, said the PDI-P and several parties had proposed a review of the law years ago but that the House had turned it down.
"The key to solving the issue of [violent groups] is not a review of the law, but the government's capacity to educate mass organizations. They would not resort to violence should the Home Ministry do its job properly."
Gandjar called on courts to appropriately handle a lawsuit filed by his colleagues as an effective way to disband the organization, instead of the protracted process needed to revise the law.
"If FPI members were found guilty of committing violence, the court should include disbanding the organization in its verdict," he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on a moratorium on the formation of new regions, Gamawan said the process had to be suspended until the government completed its grand design of the ideal number of provinces, regencies and municipalities.
"I will immediately introduce the grand design to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before it is unveiled to the public," he said.
Indonesia currently has 33 provinces and 499 regencies and municipalities. Gamawan reiterated the President's recent statement that 80 percent of newly developed regions failed to implement regional autonomy.