Under the newly Juvenile Justice System Law (UU Sistem Peradilan Pidana Anak/SPPA Law), the government of Indonesia is still obligated to issue 6 Government Regulations and 2 Presidential Regulations. The Presiden SBY Administration is considered as fail to conduct a proper discussion with the result that none of the implementing regulation has been enacted. Currently, President Jokowi Administration is being challenged to be more open and to have more public participation to the discussion of the implementing regulation of the SPPA Law, something that has not been achieved by the previous administration.
Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), assesses that there are fundamental issues related with the implementing regulation of the SPPA Law. Based on the monitoring conducted by ICJR, the discussions are lack of public involvement and tend to be conducted behind closed doors. Erasmus, an ICJR Researcher, said that the biggest problem from the current government is the tendency to discuss in closed. “In fact the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA cannot be publicly accessed, none of the government websites have published the Draft” said Erasmus.
“If the Draft cannot be accessed, how the public can take part?” added Erasmus. Apart from the issue of the limited access to the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA, another issue is the government does not provide any updates on how far the discussion has been done. “The issue becomes mazy, there is a rumor that the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA has been finalized, and there is also a rumor that the Draft has not been completely discussed.” Erasmus also said that “with the uncertainty of information,it is that the government is not serious,”..
The obscurity of existence of the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA has resulted in some doubts regarding the quality of the Draft. The government has an obligation to issue all of those implementing regulations at the latest 1 year after the Law on SPPA is effectively in force, which will be in 31 July 2015. “The Government put the children’s interest at stake with the quality of the Draft of Government Regulation which could be poor since the discussion was unclear” said Erasmus.
Erasmus emphasizes that the Government should not take any risks by enacting the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA which its discussion quality is unclear. Erasmus reasoned that during the discussion is not conducted publicly with far-ranging participation, thus there is no guarantee the provisions in the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA will be good and will put the children’s interests as primary concern.
ICJR urges the government to immediately open the access of information related to the discussion of the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA. ICJR assesses the government could start by publishing an official information related with the existence of the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA and publically re-open the discussion of the Draft of Government Regulation on SPPA, to ensure its quality.
