by: Ilham Bintang’s *)
SAD to watched the appearance of Prof. Mahfud MD in the Indonesia Lawyers Club (ILC-TVOne) program on Tuesday (20/10/2020) night.
Menkopolhukam, speaking so far for such a close distance: confirming the truth of George Washington’s words who once said “if you want to see humans change give him power”. Such is Mahfud now. Compare Mahfud with before, at least last year.
It is still fresh in our memories when he became inflamed because he was canceled to run as Cawapres to accompany Jokowi as a presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential Election. We will appreciate if he is upset. He have been asked to measure and sew the white uniform.
In fact, on the D-day, he was already standing in one place waiting for the official announcement. Uh, apparently he was not chosen.
“There is nothing new from critics of the current government,” he said.
Specifically. he mentioned Gatot Nurmantyo, Amien Rais and Din Syamsuddin who were also state officials. The same.”
In fact, we first convey the criticism to them,” he added. Only Rizal Ramli’s criticism of the repressive attitude of the security forces that he accommodated and promised to evaluate.
The ILC theme that night was “One Year Jokowi Mar’uf: From Pandemic to Demonstrations”
As usual, the President / Host of ILC according to the theme divides the number of speakers equally with the pro-contra parties. The government VS the responders who represent expertise or competence in their respective fields.
Cultural practicioner Sudjiwo Tedjo is positioned neutral. Usually given the opportunity to appear last as the end of the discussion. But not this time.
Representing the government are the Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, the Minister of Communication and Information, Johny G Plate, the Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia, the Head of BNPB Doni Mordano, and Prof. Mahfud MD. Supported by the Chairman of the DPR-RI Legislative Council, Supratman Andi Agtas, who outlined the chronology of the discussion of the Omnibus Law which he judged was in accordance with the procedure. He guaranteed that there was no smuggling of articles as alleged by some people.
All speakers “Representatives of the government” appeared to speak normatively, except for Prof. Mahfud. He was also given the last chance to speak, so his position seemed to be the last.
Many advantages in that position. Free to use time, especially the freedom to counter and spit out the arguments of previous speakers, without being able to reply. Because the ultimate position is often assumed to be the conclusion of the event. Karni Ilyas often chooses a neutral figure for the latest speaker, not a representative of the two parties who are “fighting over thoughts”.
Two pro-contra groups are rarely appointed (I purposely avoid the term Cebong VS Kampret so as not to prolong the polarization of identity politics during the 2017 DKI Pilgub and 2019 Presidential Election).
Mahfud was talking when a notification appeared on my cellphone screen. From a friend, a senior journalist, a former editor in chief of an important newspaper.
He sent a message via WA. He confided that he was tired of following Mahfud’s narrative, suspecting Karni Ilyas of giving the Menkopolhukam the privilege of using nearly half an hour according to his calculations. He was so disappointed, he turned off the television while Mahfud was still talking. My response to this friend is like this.
Make no mistake, Mahfud actually justified all criticism of the speaker who criticized the government by explaining all governments before Jokowi did the same. From Bung Karno, Mr. Harto, Mr. Habibie, Gus Dur, Megawati.
All also have mistakes, in fact all are considered to have violated Pancasila. That is what made by Bung Karno, Mr. Harto, and Gus Dur. Mahfud gave his advice as in the joke of an orange trader from Madura who was protested by the buyer because the orange was sour.
The merchant argued. “You (sampeyan) is still better off just buying a kilogram, but it’s noisy. I bought one colt of all the sour, just keep quiet”
Uncovering the Omnibus Law
On the part of the government responders or counterparts, there are economist Rizal Ramli, constitutional law expert Zainal Arifin Mochtar, Chair of YLBH Asfinati, KAMI Presidium, Gatot Nurmantyo, and senior lawyer Amir Syamsuddin.
“Wagyu meat of ILC” – borrow Rizal Ramli’s term – lies in Trio Asfinawati, Zainal Arifin Mochtar, and Rizal Ramli himself, who completely uncovered the entire contents of the Omnibus Law. From this Trio, there are signs of the involvement of oligarchic forces in the making of the Omnibus Law.
They are the masters of mining and plantation land who played a big role in the birth of the Sapujagat (Broom-stick) Law. One of them was Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for the Economy.
Asfinawati examines the threat of the fate of workers, environmental damage in depth with truly compelling arguments.
Rizal Ramli dissected the face of Indonesia’s economy, which according to him, a year before the pandemic had collapsed.
The accumulated state debt, the interest is 2% more expensive than the market price, makes the burden for the state heavier. Interest on debt must be paid in debt as well. The data presented by Rizal Ramli is very surprising.
Apart from skinning the economic side, Rizal also criticized the repressive actions of law enforcement officials against critics of the Omnibus Law.
“They are activists, but they are treated like terrorists. The activism’s face was shown to the public in handcuffs. Rizal’s criticism indeed represents the general criticism of the community. “The handcuffs will not stop them,” said Rizal.
Zainal Arifin Mochtar dissected the contents and process of compiling the Omnibus Law which he considered reckless.
He completely explained the articles in the Omnibus Law which overlapped with each other.
In fact, the purpose of the law was made to correct more than 79 laws whose contents overlapped. Not to mention that many regulations have been delegated to be accommodated in PP and ministerial regulations. “The idea is to simplify the regulations, but in practice, it actually adds to the rules.
Not only that, Zainal also combed the articles that the DPR-RI claimed had been completed when he was knocked on last October 5, but apparently the contents were different from the manuscripts sent to the President seven days later.
Back to Mahfud who when talking to my friend turned off the television. He was disappointed and annoyed that the representatives of the government did not respond much to the Trio’s indication of revealing the Omnibus Law. “By design all government people only appear to shoot KAMI’s people, especially General Gatot. The target is to kill the character of the former TNI commander. It’s sad, he complained. I tried to cheer him up. Patient. Do not worry.
ILC segmented audience: only those who understand want to watch until midnight. Even the vulgar way they corner Gatot, the audience knows.
Too bad you were in a hurry to turn off the TV. Karni Ilyas did seem like he was letting Mahfud talk at length.
But hearing the closing, KI “beat” Mahfud and all government representatives. We close the ILC quoting the words of the American novelist, Stephen King;
“Only your enemies speak the truth … your friends and lovers will always lie, because their job is to make you happy”.
Anang Fadhilah
