- House of Representatives First Session for the 2015-2016 Period
- New Regulation to Guarantee to Fulfill Rights of People with Disabilities
- The Selection of KPK’s Chair Leaves Doubts
Legislation
House of Representatives First Session for the 2015-2016 Period
On August 16th, the House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) entered their first period for 2015-2016. However, their legislative performance, along with the Government’s, is not satisfactory because they failed to nail the National Legislative Program target. Up until now, only eight bills are finished, which were local election and government bills. Other bills are adopting international treaties and finalizing the government regulation in-lieu of the law (Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang). Despite there still being time left for another parliamentary session, the odds of achieving the 27-bill target are seemingly out of reach.
The unimpressive legislative quantitative performance, aside from the opposition faction, the Red and White Coalition versus Great Indonesia coalition, resulted the delay on constructing the national legislation target. Moreover, the parliament was not attentive enough to anticipate the tasks ahead in terms of legislation. From the priority of 37 bills in the national legislation program, 27 of them were initiated by the parliament, with the government having 27 bills and the Regional Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah) having one. The Parliament tried to rationalize by stating that the legislative unit (Badan Legislasi) in the parliament had their authority cut and there has been too many hours spent in their electorate. However, the Parliament should have anticipated the situation earlier. Furthermore, the previous initiative taken by the Parliament during the 2009-2014 period with their “Legislation Day” was proven ineffective since there’s no significant outcome from the period.
An option that could be taken by both the government and parliament is to eliminate the legislation target for next year by streamlining the program and proportionately combining it with the House’s member budgeting and monitoring function. By combining it means that members should consecutively cut their time during the recess period in order to make their legislative commitment. In addition, the parliament and government should revise Law No. 12 Year 2011 on the Establishment of Laws and Regulations in the national legislation program for the year 2016 in since redesigning the whole legislation plan all over will prevent this year’s problem to not reoccur in future years. (RW)
Legislation
New Regulation to Guarantee to Fulfill Rights of People with Disabilities
Discrimination against people with disabilities is still not being correctly handled in Indonesia, especially in the public service sector. The most fundamental element which causes this is the misconception of the term “disability” used in the regulations framework.
Indonesia already has special act on people with disabilities, which was Law No. 4 Year 1997 on Crippled People, however, incorrect was the term was during those days. Even so, the Act perspective still focused on interventions to the physical condition of a person by adjusting them to the setting of the environment they’re currently at. Indonesian regulation perspective also classifies disability as a “tragedy” which needs to be addressed, thus using a charity paradigm as solution. What was regulated in Law No. 4 Year 1997 became the essence of most regulations in disability issues. Using charity as the main perspective, the rights of persons with disabilities will continue to be neglected and their position will continue to be marginalized; unable to adjust to their environment.
Therefore, Law No. 4 Year 1997 should be revised with a new law using a different approach; switching from charity based to social and rights-based. In the perspective of the arrangements made to environmental or social systems, it should be able to accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities, so that disability is recognized as a diversity in the community and is also part of the citizens’ fundamental rights that must be fulfilled by the state. By using the rights-based perspective, the person with disabilities is recognized by the state as part of the community by acknowledging their specific rights. A new law also acknowledged the creation of an inclusive society for persons with disabilities. In addition, the new law should address the issue of disability as a multi-sectoral one, not limited to social welfare only. The new law is starting to discard the use of “cripples” or “Penyandang Cacat” and replace the term with “person with disabilities” or “Penyandang Disabilitas” in accordance with the terms used in Law No. 19 Year 2011 on the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
The Bill of People with Disabilities is already being discussed by the parliament and has become a priority in the National Legislation Program in 2015 (Prolegnas 2015). But the drafting process is going too slow. Until September 2015, the Bill is still under preparation by the parliament. For the next step, the parliament will discuss the bill with the government for the remaining 3 months up until next year.
The existence of the new law will become fundamental to fulfill the rights of persons with disabilities. Reformation on a policy level will improve the outlook from society as a whole; hopefully a new understanding will be reached that disability is a part of diversity that everybody should acknowledge. (FN)
Anti Corruption
The Selection of KPK’s Chair Leaves Doubts
The selection process of Indonesia’s anti-graft commission (Corruption Eradication Commission/Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi)’s chairman for the 2015-2019 period has almost entered the final stage. The selection committee has given 8 names to President Joko Widodo, who will later be submit the list to the Parliament. According to Art. 30 (10) of Law No. 30 Year 2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission, the Parliament should choose and elect the anti-graft chairman in three months. The process will be taken along with selecting two candidates, Busjro Muqqodas and Robby Arta Brata, who are already nominated by the selection committee but have not yet went through the mandatory fit and proper test by the parliament.
The selection process is very important and ought to get serious attention. Especially since the first semester of 2015 that befell the KPK. Still vivid in the public mind when KPK named Budi Gunawan as a suspect for a corruption case, a full-blown attack on the commission resulted in two of the commissioners becoming temporarily inactivated from their posts.
There are doubts on the names submitted by the Selection Committee to the President. Three candidates, Saut Situmorang, Alexander Marwata, and Basaria Panjaitan, are making the list as some of the unimpressive ones. They are on the spot for issues ranging from compliance to wealth reporting, and also on their perspective on KPK’s authority. Some are stating they have unfavorable stances on money laundering crimes and they oppose the policy of the KPK having its own independent investigators. It means the parliament should choose the next commissioners for the anti-graft commission wisely since history has noted that attacks towards the KPK are becoming more intense now. According to Law No. 30 Year 2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission, after the names are sent to the House of Representatives, it is mandatory for the President to officially name them as KPK commissioners. (MSG)