Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) speaker Puan Maharani urged to end a polemic on the Pancasila Ideology Guidelines Bill (RUU HIP) while calling to live harmoniously and peacefully and unitedly battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We must exist in harmony and peace again as well as work together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts," Maharani remarked after receiving a Presidential Letter (Surpres) related to the Pancasila Ideology Development Board (BPIP) Bill from the ministers, representing President Joko Widodo in the Parliament Complex, Senayan, here on Thursday.

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Maharani noted that the BPIP Bill was significantly different from the HIP Bill rejected by the public.

The BPIP Bill, in essence, solely contains provisions on the duties, functions, authority, and institutional structure of the Pancasila Ideology Development Board, unlike the HIP Bill.

"The concept presented by the government contains the substance of the BPIP Bill that comprises seven chapters and 17 articles, different from the HIP Bill that contains 10 chapters and 60 articles," she noted.

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The articles rejected by the community, such as the interpretation of the philosophy and history of Pancasila, and others, no longer existed, she stated.

"During considerations, the BPIP Bill also mentions the TAP MPRS (decree of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly) No. 25 of 1966 on Prohibition of the Indonesian Communist Party and the teachings of Communism, Marxism and Leninism," she pointed out.

However, Maharani noted that the Parliament and Government will discuss the BPIP Bill only after obtaining sufficient inputs from the public over the bill.

"The House of Representatives and Government have agreed that the draft of the BPIP Bill will not be immediately discussed but will first provide the broadest opportunity to the public to participate in studying, giving advice and inputs, and criticizing the bill," Maharani noted.

On Thursday, Maharani received the Presidential Letter on the BPIP Bill from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, who was accompanied by Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, Minister for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Tjahjo Kumolo, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, and Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian.


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Translator: Abdu Faisal, Fardah
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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