Activists stage a rally in front of the House of Representatives compound in Central Jakarta on Tuesday demanding the deliberation and passing of the sexual violence bill. THE JAKARTA POST
Indonesia's House of Representatives has yet to receive an official letter from the government to kick start the deliberation process for the sexual violence bill, House speaker Puan Maharani has said, despite earlier claims that the government had sent the letter.
Puan’s statement came as lawmakers entered a three-week recess period from February 19 until March 14, which could potentially further prolong the start of the deliberation of the bill.
“As of today, the House has yet to receive an official letter from the government. We are waiting for the government’s letter,” Puan, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, said on February 18.
“Because the sitting session has already been closed, we will wait [to deliberate the bill] in the next session.”
At the start of the deliberation process of any bill, the government, in this case President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, usually sends an official letter to the House notifying lawmakers of the assigned government representative to deliberate the bill. Once the House has received the letter it assigns a specific body or commission to discuss the bill with its government counterpart.
The House speaker’s statement contradicted earlier claims by House Legislative Body (Baleg) deputy chairman Willy Aditya, who claimed that the House’s leadership had agreed to allow lawmakers and the government to deliberate the bill during the recess period.
“The House speaker has agreed to allow [the deliberation process of the sexual violence bill] during recess, but it will have to wait until after the speaker hands over the DIM [to Baleg],” Willy, who is also a NasDem politician, said on February 16, referring to the technical term for the inventory list of problems with a bill.
He said House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, in the recent meeting of the House’s steering committee (Bamus), had given his approval to deliberate the draft of the bill with the government during the recess period.
He added that if the DIM from the government only contained minor issues, the deliberation could be finished earlier than Baleg’s initial target, which is to pass the law in July.
The government has finished formulating the DIM, consisting of 588 points that were spread across 12 chapters of the draft of the bill and which are set to be deliberated with lawmakers.
The move came after the government-formed task force, which includes officials from the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry, as well as the Executive Office of the President (KSP), gathered input from the public over the draft of the sexual violence bill.
The DIM was signed by relevant ministries on February 11 and was subsequently sent to the House, according to a statement from the KSP.
A majority of lawmakers voted to endorse the bill in a plenary session on January, with only the conservative Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) rejecting the motion. This marks a significant step that brings the bill, which has languished at the House for nearly a decade, closer to being passed.
The bill aims to provide special legislation for sexual violence that prioritises victims’ protection and recognises several forms of sexual violence, such as nonphysical sexual harassment, physical sexual harassment, online-based sexual harassment, forced contraception, coercion, sexual exploitation and sexual torture.
In one of the public consultation sessions for the bill held by the government, activists raised concerns over some forms of sexual violence that were left unrecognised in the draft of the bill, such as forced abortion and sexual slavery.
They also urged law enforcement officers to apply gender perspectives in handling sexual violence cases.
In response to the activists’ inputs, National Police Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) investigator Senior Commissioner Jean Calvijn Simanjuntak said in the same session that provisions in the draft of the bill required that only competent and trained officials who would be allowed to handle sexual violence cases.
THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
