Drop Pancasila from mass organizations bill: PKS
Margareth S. Aritonang, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Tue, March 19 2013, 10:38 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 4
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) wants lawmakers to drop requirements from a bill on mass organizations currently under deliberation that would require that the state ideology of Pancasila be their sole organizing principle.
A representative of the PKS said he was concerned that the inclusion of such a stipulation in the bill would allow for the repression of Muslim groups as happened during the New Order.
PKS lawmaker Indra told The Jakarta Post over the weekend that a formal endorsement of Pancasila would be redundant, claiming that members of the public were aware of the tenets of the national ideology.
"Pancasila, as well as the 1945 Constitution, have been used to regulate our lives, so it's unnecessary to mention them in the bill," Indra said. "We are not against Pancasila, but we don't want it to be the only principle to be adopted by mass organizations."
Indra, who is a member of the House of Representatives committee deliberating on the bill, said that the PKS proposed giving courts authority to suspend or dissolve organizations deemed problematic, calling on such measures to be undertaken incrementally.
"We believe that problematic groups should be given more guidance instead of being slapped with an outright ban. Organizations deemed to have violated the rules deserve a warning so that they can make some improvements," Indra said.
The PKS reportedly has consulted several Islamic organizations in the nation, such as the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), which have previously objected to the bill and called for explicit bans on groups promoting capitalist or communist ideology.
Requiring a mass organization to adhere to Pancasila, as stipulated in the bill's second and third articles, would not be enough to stop the capitalists and communists, the groups said.
The Muslim organizations also suggested that the bill should make it more difficult for foreign organizations to operate in Indonesia out of fears that the groups might pose threats to the country's unity and moral principles.
Contacted separately, legislative committee chairman and lawmaker Abdul Malik Haramain said that the House was expected to endorse the bill by the end of the month, despite opposition.
Abdul Malik said that the bill would require all mass organizations to adopt the 1945 State Constitution and Pancasila in addition to other ideologies that they have espoused.
The lawmaker said that the bill would not grant the government the right to dissolve or suspend problematic organizations, claiming that such decisions could only be made after relevant agencies completed complicated procedures.
"We have invited Islamic groups to thoroughly discuss the matter today. As of for the PKS, we believe we can lobby them to sort things out," Abdul Malik said.
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