Recording The Long Journey Of The RKUHP Since The Suharto Era To Jokowi, How Are The Twists And Turns?

Illustration of the long journey of the RKUHP (Nailin-VOI)

YOGYAKARTA - Yasonna Laoly, Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkumham), said that the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code (RKHUP) had gone through a long process. Yasonna made this statement at a press conference at the DPR Building, Senayan, on Tuesday (6/12).

The Minister of Law and Human Rights said that the repair of the Dutch-made Criminal Code had been discussed for a long time. He said talks about improving the Criminal Code were not simple and easy.

"Today the DPR and the government have ratified the draft Criminal Code into the Criminal Code. Earlier, the Chairman (Commission III of the DPR) said it had been since 1963. I think in English it said it's long of the journey," said Yasonna.

Yasonna said discussions on the improvement of the Criminal Code had been carried out since the Suharto era was still leading Indonesia. He said experts had gathered at that time to discuss improvements to the Criminal Code.

"Starting from Pak Harto's time. Experts have also gathered, drafting began and was later included in Pak SBY's era. We will discuss it," he said.

The improvement of the Criminal Code was then continued during the first period of Jokowi's administration. Yasonna said the discussion had reached the first level of the hammer. There were 14 points that were processed and the discussions were not continued at level II.

Furthermore, the discussion of the RKUHP was continued or carried over in the second period of the Jokowi government. The President asked the government to disseminate the RKUHP to all regions in Indonesia. Even though it has been socialized, the implementation and acceptance are still not perfect.

"There is no ivory that is not cracked. Moreover, we are multiculture, multiethnic. Only the Dutch who are homogeneous need a long time to design the law, 70 years. We, which contains multiethnic people, need extensive accommodation," said Yasonna.

On January 21, 2015, the first RKUHP containing 786 articles was still criticized for being considered controversial. In this draft, Article 264 regulates insults to the president and vice president with a sentence of five years in prison.

On February 25, 2015, the government version of the RKUHP accompanied by academic papers was issued by the Directorate General of Regulations & Legislations of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (DJPP Kemenkumham).

On June 5, 2015, President Jokowi issued a Presidential Letter to the DPR to discuss the RKUHP.

In November 2016, the DPR had discussed several inventory lists of problems (DIM) with the government. However, a number of DIMs were postponed for discussion. One of the DIMs, namely related to criminal acts against the dignity of the president and vice president.

In February 2018, the broadcast draft RKUHP still contained several articles that became controversial. The article contains rules regarding insulting the president and prohibiting abortion or abortion. Article 530 contains a ban on abortion for all women without exception rape victims.

On May 28, 2018, the government added a paragraph on the article on insulting the President and Vice President to a complaint offense.

In September 2019, the DPR and the government agreed on a RKUHP containing 628 articles. In Article 218, regulating the insult to the president can be punished without going through a complaint offense. The criminal sentence from this article has been reduced to imprisonment for a maximum of three years and six months.

RKUHP also had time to pass Rate I ratification but was postponed by the president to move up to the ratification of Level II or the Plenary Meeting. The postponement was made because the public refused to go through a massive demonstration carried out by students entitled 'Reform of Corruption'.

Meanwhile, the National Alliance for Criminal Code Reform also criticized 24 crucial issues that had an impact on social life such as abortion rules, cohabitation, blasphemy, the use of customary law, and many others.

The Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Eddy OS Hiariej, revealed that the RKUHP draft is still being fixed and synchronized. Of the 24 crucial issues that are in the public spotlight, the government only discussed 14 issues.

On July 6, 2022, the government officially submitted a draft RKUHP containing 632 articles to Commission III of the DPR. Eddy explained that there were improvements that included seven matters related to 14 crucial issues, namely related to criminal threats, chapters of criminal acts of detention, issuance and printing, harmonization with laws outside the RKUHP, synchronization of body stems and explanations, preparation techniques, and typos.

The DPR approved the RKUHP as a law in making the second level decisions made by the DPR in the 11th Plenary Meeting of the Second Session Period of the 2022-2023 Session Year on Tuesday (6/12).

Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who chaired the session asked each faction whether the bill on the criminal law book could be approved. The session participants responded approved, then Dasco tapped the hammer of approval.

That was the long journey of the RKUHP from the Suharto era until the second period of Jokowi's administration. Menkumham Yasonna emphasized that the ratification of the RKUHP did not mean that the government would silence criticism from the public.

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