Jakarta, Feb 24 (Antara) - The House of Representatives is likely to
continue deliberating the Bill on Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Bill on
the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP) despite calls to postpone it as its
current term is almost ended.
Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Marzuki Alie has stated
that it is urgent for the law-makers to finish the deliberations of the
bills in their current term because they still have five months before
the legislative election was held on April 9, 2014.
The House Speaker argued that there was nothing wrong to deliberate
draft laws in the durrent term as long as the relevant parties such as
legal experts and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) were
involved.
"By
involving the KPK and many other parties such as legal experts,
articles in the bills which have the potential to weaken the KPK, can
be identified and can be scrapped," the DPR Speaker said here on Sunday.
There is a suspicion that the bills on the KUHP and the on KUHAP will
weaken the KPK. Some quarters viewed that certain articles in the bills
have the potential to weaken authority of the KPK and eliminate its
rights to conduct examinations, investigations and prosecution of
(corruption) crime suspects.
Thus, they called on the DPR to pospone deliberations of the bills as
legislators in the House of Representatives are to end their current
term. They argued that strategic issues should not be deliberated in a
short deadline.
Marzuki Alie said however that the present House members still had five
months to discuss the bills before the legislative election was held on
April 9 and their tenure was over in September. The bills should be
discussed and be endorsed into law soon.
"The Netherlands itself no longer uses laws such as those in the KUHP
and the KUHAP. The KUHP and the KUHAP are already outdated. So, we have
to accomplish the deliberation of the bills so that they could be passed
into law," Marzuki Alie said.
With regard to the short deadline as the country will already organize a
legislative election April 9, 2014, the House Speaker said it could
still be discussed after the elections (before the newly elected
legislators are installed).
However, many quarters such as the KPK, the Indonesian Corruption Watch
(ICW) and the Anti-Corruption Research Center of the University of
Gajah Mada, have urged the House to stop the deliberations of the two
bills for the time being.
They
made the appeal as they suspected that some articles in the bills will
adversely weaken the KPK and other institutions such as the Financial
Transaction Analysis and Report Center (PPATK) and the National
Narcotics Agency (BNN).
According to Surya Paloh, the chairman of the National Democratic Party
(Nasdem), the deliberation of the bills should be postponed. Though
revision is yet to be made, the existing system will not cause
disturbance in the Indonesian legal structure.
"I think postponement is the best choice. It is needless to feel that
we will lose everything if the deliberations of the bills are not
accomplished this month. There are still many other urgent jobs that
still have to be done," Surya Paloh said.
He said that the House had better focus on accomplishing its
performance on other jobs until the end of its term in September 2014.
The KUHP and KUHAP revision could be done by the new legislators and new
government in the next term.
"This
will allow legislators to discuss it easily because they will have
ample time to deliberate it and make improvement," Surya Paloh said.
Therefore, the NasDem chairman supported the KPK efforts to ask for the
postponement of the bills. "So, what is the use to have a new bill if
it will only create controversies? Why should we not optimize what we
already have now, at least for the time being," Surya Paloh questioned.
On Wednesday, the KPK sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie and the Working
Committee Chairman of Commission III of the House, Azis Syamsuddin. In
the letter, the KPK asked for the postponement of the draft law on KUHP
and KUHAP because it suspected that the bills posed a threat to the
existence of the KPK.
The KPK is of the view that the revision of the KUHP and the KUHAP, has
the potential to weaken or to reduce its authorities, namely the
elimination of its right to investigate a criminal case, the possibility
of criminal crimes which are stipulated in the KUHP, to be referred to
the KUHAP, the abolition of its prosecution right, the elimination of
its right to extend a detention period of a suspect during the
investigation and the shortening of detention period of a suspect.
With
regard to this, Hayono Isman, a contestant in the ruling Democratic
Party presidential candidate convention, said that the revision of the
KUHP and the KUHAP must be adjusted to the reforms spirit, law
enforcement and corruption elimination program.
In this regard, Deputy Chairman of Commission III of the House Azis
Syamsuddin agreed if the government withdrew the draft bills of the KUHP
and the KUHAP from the House deliberations.
"If the government is willing to withdraw it, I will agree to it
because the bills were submitted by the government. Commission III (on
legal affairs) is only doing its jobs," Azis Syamsuddin said.
Yet, according to Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin, the
two draft laws could not be withdrawn by the government without
the approval of the House of Representatives because they were now
under the deliberation of Commission III. The commission has
deliberated them since December 11, 2012.
"Now the bills have been submitted to the Working Committee which
discusses its substance based on the List of Problems (DIM)," Amir
explained.
The minister said that revision of the KUHP and KUHAP would not weaken the KPK and reduce its authorities.
"The bills on the KUHP and KUHAP are 'lex generalis' in nature so that
they will not eliminate the KPK authority to conduct examinations,
investigations and prosecution," the minister stressed.
He said that the bill on the KUHP was drafted in an effort to modify
criminal laws so that all principles in the criminal laws will be
effective for all crimes, both crimes as stipulated in the KUHP and
those stipulated by other laws outside the KUHP.
This
means that the revised KUHP will not abolish the effectiveness of laws
outside the KUHP because laws outside the KUHP were 'lex specialis' in
nature as regulated in Artile 757 and Article 758 of the Bill on KUHP.
"Thus,
the Bill on KUHP will not eliminate the existence of laws outside the
KUHP and will not illegitimate the existence of other legal enforcement
institutions such as the KPK," the minister stated.***1***
(T.A014/INE/O001 )
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 24-02-2014 09:27 |
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