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Government revives deliberation on national security bill

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2015

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Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The Defense Ministry is pushing for the endorsement of the national security (Kamnas) bill, the deliberation of which has been postponed for years as a result of public rejection.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu officially submitted the proposal to House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and informatics during a four-hour closed-door meeting on Monday, including two other priority bills related to the country's defense sector: a bill on state secrecy and an amendment to the 2014 law on the Indonesian Military.

Ryamizard declined to elaborate when asked about the details, only asserting that "the deliberation of the Kamnas bill must be completed".

The 2009-2014 House failed to endorse the national security bill that aimed to set a regulation in countering threats against national security following protests from civil society organizations over concerns that the bill would encourage misuse of authority by the state.

Besides its contentious stipulations, the rejection of the bill was based on a lack of a clear definition of a threat to security.

In responding to protests, the Defense Ministry, under the leadership of former minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, revised the draft bill, identifying threats as attempts, actions or roles that were proven to harm the unity of the nation in terms of security, ideology, politics, economics and culture. He submitted the revised draft to the commission in October of last year.

The latest version has also omitted five articles related to the roles of intelligence agencies in handling threats, including the National Intelligence (BIN), the Police Intelligence Agency and other state intelligence bodies in order to make it correspond with the 2014 law on social conflict and the 2011 law on state intelligence.

It also omitted an article that specified the President's authority in managing national security although it still mandated that the President chair efforts in countering threats against the nation.

Ryamizard said that the draft submitted to Commission I on Monday has also gone through some changes, but turned down queries for further details. "There are only several improvements with the wording but it is basically the same [as the previous draft]," he said.

Aiming to highlight the importance of endorsing the bills proposed, Ryamizard went on to say, "none of the programs I've designed are inconsequential, all of them are arranged to prepare for threats."

Although Commission I has yet to formally kick off the deliberation, the proposal has apparently won nods from several of the commission members, including from the leaders.

Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq referred to the bill as "crucially important" although the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician said the discussion was still a debate among the government authorities.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/01/27/govt-revives-deliberation-national-security-bill.html.