(Jakpost-wikidpr) Govt and House to Overhaul National Legislation Program

12/12/2018

In a bid to enhance the drafting of the country’s laws the government will start overhauling the processes of the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) and the National Mid Term Development Plan (RPJMN) next year.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry said on Wednesday that the two programs would be unified, as opposed to past practice when they were drafted separately by the House of Representatives and the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) without coordination by the ministry.

“The RPJMN and the Prolegnas that are designed every five years should complement [each other],” the director of law coordination at the ministry, Wicipto Setiadi, told reporters on the sidelines of a discussion at the Indonesia Jentera School of Law in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

The synchronization would be achieved by shifting the authority to propose bills (RUU) to the Law and Human Rights Ministry, he said.

“The ministry will coordinate with Bappenas to decide which bills would be prioritized [in the Prolegnas],” Wicipto said. “So in the future, there should be an improvement. The number of bill proposals will not he our focus, first we have to decide whether the proposals match the RPJMN or not.”

Therefore, he expected the number of priority bills included in the next Prolegnas to be fewer than those in the previous Prolegnas.

“There will be a long list of bills in the Prolegnas 2015-2019. Then we will decide which bills to be prioritized in each year. Hopefully the number will be fewer than before, 30 bills at the most for one year to match our capability” said Wicipto.

He said the number of bills in the Prolegnas was too high in the past.

“From 2009 to 2014, there were 251 bills but only 20 to 30 percent of them were passed,” Wicipto said.

Besides trimming the number of priority bills, the Law and Human Rights Ministry would also take the initiative of proposing the priority bills, he added.

“In the past, it was us who asked other ministries which bills they needed [to be drafted and prioritized]. A single ministry can propose dozens of bills. Now we’re going to draft the bills first before asking them what other things need to be added [in the bills],” said Wicipto.

After drafting the bills, the ministry will submit them to the Legislation Body (Baleg) in the House for them to decide on the Prolegnas together.

Wicipto said the ministry would prioritize the bill on corruption eradication as well as amendments to the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).

“It also depends on the House, but the government will prioritize these bills. The KUHP will be prioritized in 2015. After it is passed, then the KUHAP will be next in line,” he said.

On Wednesday, the National Law Commission (KHN), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) paid a visit to the Baleg to push for the body to prioritize the amendments to the KUHP and the KUHAP.

Besides the two bills, the organizations also suggested the Baleg to prioritize a total of 14 bills, including the bill on national defense, while dropping the deliberation of controversial bills like that on tobacco.

“Komnas HAM has received reports from civil society about the bad impact of tobacco products, especially cigarettes. They disapproved of the appearance of the bill that clearly contradicted Law No. 36/2009 on health,” the commission’s chairman, Hafid Abbas, said.

In other Baleg (legislation board) meeting with expert staff of Baleg, Rufinus Hutauruk (Hanura-People Conscienes Party) & Dwi Ria (PDI-P) mention to improve quality and not quantity of Law plan. "Baleg isn't waste box for law plan, so Baleg must selected in each law plan," Dwi Ria said.

Baleg vice-chairman Saan Mustofa said the Prolegnas would be discussed with the government on Thursday.

(additional from wikidpr team)

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(Jakpost-wikidpr) Govt and House to Overhaul National Legislation Program