Danu Damarjati, Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition has responded to remarks by the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission III chairperson who called them lazy in assessing to the discussions on the Draft Criminal Procedure Law (RUU KUHAP) which has now been ratified as the KUHAP Law.
"It can't be said that the Civil Coalition is lazy. Actually, the ones who are lazy are the DPR itself because they don't want to make a better, A more perfected draft, and were in a hurry to ratify it", YLBHI General Chairperson Muhammad Isnur told Kompas.com on Friday November 21.
The YLBHI is one of the non-government organisations (NGOs) that make up the Civil Society Coalition for Criminal Procedure Code Reform. The new KUHAP was enacted into law at a DPR plenary session on Tuesday November 18.
The Civil Society Coalition for KUHAP Reform consists of several NGOs including the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBHM), the Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS), the Women's Legal Aid Foundation for Justice (LBH APIK), the Lokataru Foundation, the Indonesian Legal Resource Centre (ILRC), the National Coalition of Disability Organisations and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
They have criticised the new KUHAP since the it was still in the draft discussion stage as well as after it became law.
The Coalition feels that its name was misrepresented during a RUU KUHAP Working Committee (Panja) meeting which took place at Commission III on November 12-13. They also feel that the Commission III's invitation to NGOs opposing the latest KUHAP was a meaningless because the RUU KUHAP had already reached the point where it was to be passed into law anyway.
"The question is, what was the invitation for? Because it we should have been invited before it was ratified when it was still in the revision stage", said Isnur. "There is no longer any chance to improve it. We don't need their explanation", he said.
Habiburokhman says NGOs lazy
Commission III chairperson Habiburokhman from President Prabowo Subianto's Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) has responded to criticisms over the controversial articles in the new KUHAP which he considered to be based on false information.
He even insinuated that those who have highlighted the controversial articles were a lazy coalition, because they did not read the document or follow the discussion in their entirety.
"Now, this means they're a lazy coalition, they didn't see our live streaming of a special debate on the issues. This is a lazy coalition, we're just giving it a name. It's not right", said Habiburokhman during in a press conference at the DPR building on Wednesday November 19.
Habiburokhman made the statement when explaining inaccurate explanations about controversial articles in the RUU KUHAP that needed to be straightened out.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Elemen Koalisi Sipil Tanggapi Habiburokhman: Yang Pemalas adalah DPR".]
