Indonesian House of Representatives Ratifies the Health Bill into Law at a Plenary Meeting

Jakarta, MINA – The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) has officially ratified the Omnibus Law Draft Law, concerning health to become a Law.

The ratification was taken at the 29th DPR Plenary Meeting for trial period V for the 2022-2023 session.

This meeting was chaired by the Speaker of the DPR, Puan Maharani, accompanied by Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus, and Rachmat Gobel.

“Can the Draft Law on Health be approved as law?” said Puan at the DPR Complex, Senayan, Jakarta on Tuesday as quoted from CNN Indonesia.

“Agreed,” said the majority of members present. “Knock,” the hammer sounded in court as a sign of the ratification of the law.

According to the records of the DPR Secretariat General, the list of attendees for this plenary meeting was signed by 105 people, 197 people had permission, and was attended by members from all factions in the DPR.

The ratification of the Health Bill was also attended by government representatives, including the Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform Abdullah Azwar, and Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Eddy Hiariej.

Then, the ranks of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Finance.

The majority of factions in the DPR agreed to ratify the Health Bill. The factions that agreed were PDIP, Golkar, Gerindra, PKB, PPP, and PAN.

The NasDem faction accepted with a note. Only the Democratic Party and PKS factions rejected the ratification of the Health Bill.

Discussion of the Health Bill began when the DPR Baleg sent a draft to the government for joint discussion after the bill was passed as a DPR initiative at a plenary session on February 14.

Then on April 3, the DPR’s Bamus commissioned Commission IX to start conducting discussions. Furthermore, the government submitted a problem inventory list (DIM) to Commission IX on April 5.

The Working Committee, led by the Deputy Chair of Commission IX of the DPR, Melki Laka Lena, began working as of April 15 to today to discuss the Bill which contains 20 chapters and 458 articles.

Throughout its discussion, the Health Bill experienced resistance from various parties, especially five professional organizations (OP) in Indonesia.

The five OPs in question are the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), the Indonesian Dentists Association (PDGI), the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNII), the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) and the Indonesian Pharmacist Association (IAI).

They took issue with a number of things, such as the mandatory spending that was removed in the Health Bill, protection for health and medical personnel, permits for foreign doctors to practice in Indonesian hospitals, to Registration Certificates (STRs) which are valid for life.

The bill on health is also considered not transparent and hasty, but the DPR and the government are continuing to discuss the bill on health.

The ratification of the Health Bill was marked by rejection from hundreds of doctors and health workers who held an action in front of the RI MPR/DPR Building, Jakarta. They came from five health professional organizations that had rejected the bill from the start.

The mass of compact action wearing white clothes surrounded the DPR building at 10.30 WIB. They also brought a number of posters and banners. Security forces were deployed to oversee the action.

The Head of the Legal Division of IDI South Tangerang, Panji Utomo, claimed that the action would be attended by thousands of masses from the five professional organizations.

Panji also alluded to the capacity of the Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who is not from the medical community and has only been in office since 2020, to be able to pass the Health Bill.

“Mr. Budi Gunadi Sadikin isn’t a doctor. He just became Minister of Health on December 23, 2020. Imagine the minister who served so short but could submit draft inputs on (health) regulations,” said Panji.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin agrees that the Health Bill which will soon be passed by the DPR has met with rejection. According to him, the rejection arose because it was difficult for the “players” to accept the Health Bill.

“The players will find it difficult to accept the Health Bill,” said Budi Gunadi Sadikin in the Podcabs Report on the Pandemic to the Polemic on the Health Bill, as reported by Antara, Monday. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)