MANOKWARI – The passage of the Draft Law on the Criminal Code (RUU KUHP) to become a law is a historic event for the Indonesian people for which all elements of Indonesian society should be grateful. Bearing in mind, this Criminal Code is a pure original product made by the nation’s children replacing the previous Criminal Code Law which was a legacy of the Dutch colonial.
The Indonesian Criminal Law and Criminology Society (Mahupiki) in collaboration with Papua State University (Unipa) held a socialization event for the new Criminal Code at the Swissbel Manokwari Hotel, Papua, Wednesday (8/2).
The speakers who attended this event were Professor of the Faculty of Law, Diponegoro University, Semarang, Prof. Dr. Pujiono SH, M. Hum, Professor of Law from Padjadjaran University (Unpad) Bandung, Professor Romli Atmasasmita, and Professor of Criminal Law, University of Jember (Unej) , Prof. Arief Amrullah.
On this occasion, Prof. Romli Atmasasmita revealed that the urgency to replace the WvS version of the Criminal Code with the National Criminal Code was an important step because there was a paradigm shift to a retributive paradigm such as Corrective Justice, Restorative Justice, and Rehabilitative Justice.
“Replacing the legal system with the National Criminal Code is also a mandate, TAP MPR II/MPR/1993 concerning GBHN, and Law 17 of 2007 concerning RPJPN,” said Prof. Romli.
According to him, changing laws and regulations from Colonial Products to National Products is important because people often forget the fact that the colonial-era Criminal Code had been trying for more than 107 years so that they were deemed unable to meet the legal needs of society.
“The formulation of the National Criminal Code is important because it is an embodiment of a comprehensive reform of the National Criminal Law system by adopting the values of Pancasila as the nation’s culture,” he explained.
Another speaker, Prof. Arief Amrullah said that currently, Indonesia already has Law no. 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code. The New Criminal Code was ratified on January 2, 2023, consisting of Book I and Book II, with a total of 624 articles.
According to him, the public must know why the Dutch-derived Criminal Code had to be replaced with the New Criminal Code which had been compiled by the best Indonesian legal experts.
“The reasons include politically if Indonesia still uses the WvS Criminal Code, it means that Indonesia is still a Dutch colony, sociologically, the Criminal Code (WvS) is not based on the context of the Indonesian nation itself.” said Prof. Arief.
The renewal of the National Criminal Law contains four fundamental change missions, among others, Decolonization, Democratization, Consolidation, Harmonization and Modernization.
On the same occasion, Prof. Dr. Pujiono SH M Hum explained a number of actual issues in the New Criminal Code or the National Criminal Code, including living law or customary law, abortion, contraception, adultery, cohabitation, obscenity acts, crimes against religion or beliefs and crimes committed related to freedom of expression.
“The public also needs to understand regarding article 218 concerning assaulting the dignity of the President and article 240 concerning insulting the government or state institutions. These articles do not limit freedom of expression and opinion, because in the elucidation of the article it has been stated that criticism, demonstrations and different opinions cannot be punished,” said Pujiyono
