By: Aprilia Hutapea )*
The aspirations of the entire community, including the students, are the things that have an important role in the entire process of drafting the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) until it will be promulgated as a replacement for the old Dutch Criminal Code.
A total of five State Universities (PTN) in Indonesia will soon be visited by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to start massively socializing the Draft Criminal Code (KUHP). This is in the framework of a program titled Kumham Goes to Campus which will last until early November 2022.
Regarding this, Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights (Wamenkumham), Eddy OS Hiariej explained that the five PTNs to be visited were, among others, the University of North Sumatra (USU), Hasanuddin University Makassar, Nusa Cendana University Kupang, Palangka Raya University to Udayana University. Bali.
Furthermore, he also said that the socialization that was intensified by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights was indeed a direct mandate from the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, since August 2022. He advised that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights could come directly to campuses to be able to hold dialogues, including to explain and absorb the aspirations of students directly regarding the Draft Criminal Code.
Not without reason, according to Eddy, the target of socialization to students is very important. The reason is that students are one of the elements of the nation’s young generation who have distinctive characteristics, namely critical thinking and also upholding ideals. So it is very necessary for the government to be able to absorb all the aspirations of the students to the maximum.
For information, the final draft of the RKUHP itself has been submitted by the government to the DPR RI since July 6, 2022. Then responding to this, member of Commission III of the DPR RI, Arteria Dahlan said that his commission together with the government already had a target so that the RKUHP could be promulgated immediately during the trial which will be held this year.
Therefore, at this time, both the DPR RI and the government itself are still continuing to be aggressive and full of reverence together to be able to convince the public so that the bill can be pushed into an official law and replace the old KUHP, a legacy of the Dutch colonial era, which no longer existed. relevant, especially when dealing with the dynamics of the modern social and legal world as it is today.
Furthermore, the PDIP politician also added that after the entire socialization period had been carried out by the DPR RI and the government, then there would be an agenda to make limited adjustments regarding the inputs that had been received from all Indonesian people, including students as well.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Indonesian Jentera School of Law (STH), Arief T Surowidjojo said that the entire process of formulating the RKUHP should indeed pay attention to the principles of legislation governance or in other words, there must be a process of feasibility and governance regarding the preparation of laws and regulations. This principle becomes very very important because the legal products that are produced will certainly have an effect on the roles and interactions of all components of citizens.
So far, the actual process of reforming the criminal law system in Indonesia, from previously using the old KUHP inherited from the Netherlands to be replaced with the RKUHP draft by the Nation’s own children, has taken a very long time, which has been initiated even since 1963 ago. Arief sees this as a form of prudence in capturing all problems and formulating rules in the midst of society so that one cannot just arbitrarily change the rules without a very in-depth study process.
The Head of STH Indonesia Jentera also emphasized that so far the development of the criminal law system in Indonesia includes universal matters such as the role of the state and law enforcement officers, including the basic rights and constitutional rights of citizens. So all of them are very important to be formulated within the framework of the constitution. In addition, criminal law reform also urgently needs a different approach because the times and changes in society are now very dynamic, so it is clearly not possible if the old Criminal Code legal system is still used.
For this reason, the DPR RI and the government if they only work alone will not be able to maximally formulate the RKUHP. So it is also very important to absorb public aspirations, because later the enacted RKUHP will be able to regulate criminal law concerning the interests of all individuals in the country. Because the Draft Criminal Code which regulates criminal provisions, ideally it should not contain rubber articles that cause multiple interpretations and even lead to various perceptions when implementing them. Realizing this, the government continues to absorb the aspirations of the public, including students, in the discussion of the RKUHP and it is very necessary to involve various elements in society.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusantara Reading Room