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By : Ashila Salsabila
Commission III of the DPR RI and the Government officially agreed on the Draft Law on the Criminal Code (RUU KUHP) to be approved into law on Tuesday 6 December 2022 yesterday. All factions in Commission III of the DPR RI and the government have expressed their opinions and agreed that the Criminal Code Law can be ratified.
The ratification is a historic momentum in the field of law in the life of society, nation and state in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Because the Criminal Code is a product of the nation’s children. the effort to make the RKUHP is not an easy job because for years the process of preparing for its amendment has been going on with legal dialectics which is not easy. However, it turns out that during the era of President Jokowi’s leadership, the Indonesian people could also solve it. To formulate it, a lot of formulation was carried out, views on criticism were also heard and respected as long as the critical views were carried out objectively, constructively, constitutionally and based on common interests.
Holistic improvement of the Criminal Code Bill has accommodated input from the public so that criminalization and arbitrary actions by law enforcers do not occur by improving the formulation of article norms and their explanations. This was conveyed by the Chairman of Commission III Bambang Wuryanto alias Bambang Pacul. According to Bambang, the government and the DPR have conducted various public dialogues and socialization of the draft of the Criminal Code Law. Given the complexity and broad scope of the material substance of the Criminal Code Law, as requested by the government in delaying the ratification of the Criminal Code Bill in the 2014-2019 period.
The chairman of Commission III of the DPR RI explained the reasons for the DPR and the government to change the Criminal Code Bill into a Law (UU). According to him, it aims to provide legal certainty. With the approval of the Criminal Code Bill to become a law, it is hoped that there will be a guarantee of legal certainty. In addition, another reason is to create justice in the sentencing process.
He stressed that the criminal process was not meant to suffer the convict. He added that another reason was to show the government’s seriousness in legal conflicts in Indonesia.
This was also approved by the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), he welcomed the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) into law by the DPR. Deputy V of the Presidential Chief of Staff, Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, said the ratification of the Criminal Code Bill into law was a real step towards reforming Indonesia’s criminal law.
Jaleswari believes that the ratified Criminal Code will perfect the regulatory framework for Indonesian criminal law, which will be achieved through consolidating criminal provisions in various sectoral laws and preventing criminal disparities between one provision and another.
The new Criminal Code, which displaces the Dutch colonial heritage Criminal Code (Wetboek van Strafrecht voor Nederlandsch Indie) will undergo a 3-year transition period and become effective in 2025. The Criminal Code Bill, which was passed towards the end of 2022, was initiated in 1958 and has been discussed in the DPR since 1963 .
This legal product that has been in force since the time of the Dutch East Indies Government in 1918 or 104 years ago is considered to need updating to meet the demands of the times and the national need for laws that are corrective justice, restorative justice, and rehabilitative justice.
KSP, continued Jaleswari, was also involved in the government’s collective efforts to push for the ratification of the Criminal Code Bill and oversee aspects of its implementation. In the past three years, a team of experts and the government have conducted outreach to the public and provided training for law enforcement officials to provide an understanding of the meaning, essence and philosophy of the RUU KUHP.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Eddy Hiariej said, the ratification of the Criminal Code Draft Bill was a new milestone for Indonesia because for the first time Indonesia had a codification of pure criminal law made by the Indonesian nation.
To rule out clashes with the new Criminal Code, Chairman of Commission III of the Indonesian Parliament, Bambang Wuryanto, invited the public to observe and criticize the articles in the newly passed Criminal Code. Bambang asked to take legal action, if ‘someone finds it very disturbing’ and it is valid for three years since it was ratified.
With this ratification, the community gets balanced justice and without the need for demonstrations. We can discuss the details per article, but in general we have discussed it and taken into account the value of shared interests and not favoring one group or one person’s interests.
The Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, said three years was sufficient time for the government to conduct outreach and training for law enforcers and stakeholders .
Support also came from University of Indonesia Academics, Dr. Surastini Fitriasih, SH, MH considered that the Draft Criminal Code Bill (RUU KUHP) was a regulation that not only provided firmness, but also legal justice in Indonesia. One of them is the existence of alternative sanctions for perpetrators of criminal offenses. Dr. Surastini assessed that the advantage of the Criminal Code Bill is that there are alternative sanctions. Prison sentences can be replaced with fines, fines can be replaced with supervision or social work.
He also gave an example in one of the articles related to homelessness which is considered a crime. The article explains that the prohibition against wandering is a limitation to maintain public order. The sanction is not deprivation of the right to independence, but only fines or other penalties.
*) The author is an observer of law and politics