November 23, 2025 | 08:50 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Civil Society Coalition is urging Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) to postpone the enforcement of the new Criminal Procedure Code or KUHAP. This demand comes after the House of Representatives ratified the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code on November 18 and is set to take effect on January 2, 2026.
Muhamad Isnur, the head of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), stated that the process of discussing and ratifying the Criminal Procedure Code was conducted behind closed doors, rushed, and contained problematic articles. "As the President, Prabowo needs to promptly issue or use an emergency law to postpone, cancel, or amend the Criminal Procedure Code. This is an extraordinary negligence," a representative of the civil coalition said at the YLBHI office in Central Jakarta on Saturday, November 22, 2025.
Isnur criticized the acceleration of the Criminal Procedure Code's ratification, which resulted in the public losing the opportunity to participate. According to him, the final document of the new articles was uploaded only a few hours before the plenary session, making it impossible to adequately review. "There is an intentional acceleration of the process, preventing dynamics, criticism, and input from the public, and the public is not yet familiar with the law," he said.
The problem lies not only in the seemingly forced implementation process but also in a stack of substantive issues. There are at least 40 critical notes in the 2025 Criminal Procedure Code, a number that could still increase. Some of the issues include:
First, the new Criminal Procedure Code weakens the physical protection of citizens because the authorization for arrest and detention no longer involves a judge. Article 93 grants full authority to investigators for arrest without the need for review by an independent authority, while Article 99 dictates that detention is also decided by the investigator. The grounds for detention have been expanded to be highly subjective-such as being deemed to provide information that does not align with the facts-opening up the potential for abuse and contradicting the practice of judicial scrutiny in many countries.
Second, the dominance of the Indonesian National Police (Polri) is reinforced as the new regulations place the police as the main investigators in almost all cases. Article 6, Article 7 paragraph (3)-(5), Article 8 paragraph (3), and Article 24 paragraph (3) affirm that public prosecutors and certain investigators are under the coordination of the police, while Article 93 paragraph (3) and Article 99 paragraph (3) revoke their authority to conduct arrests and detentions without the orders of the police. This makes investigations in institutions such as the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and Customs potentially non-independent and less effective.
Third, the restorative justice scheme also opens up the potential for transactions. Article 80 paragraph (2) allows for a peace agreement to be made since the investigation stage, even before a criminal act is confirmed, without the oversight of a judge. The termination of the investigation through RJ only requires formal approval from the judge in accordance with Articles 83-84, without a substantive assessment. With the alternative nature of the conditions for RJ in Article 80, almost all cases, with no exceptions, can be negotiated, creating opportunities for extortion and a peace process vulnerable to corruption.
The postponement of the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code through the issuance of an emergency law is considered a constitutional measure that is urgent to prevent legal chaos and open the door for comprehensive revision. This mechanism has a strong precedent: the previous government had repeatedly postponed or suspended laws when crucial issues threatening public interests were found. "We provide input, urging Prabowo to immediately issue an emergency law, cancel this Criminal Procedure Code as it endangers law enforcement," said Isnur.
Such postponement was previously done for the Industrial Relations Dispute Settlement Law through Emergency Law Number 1 of 2005 due to the unpreparedness of facilities and human resources; the Fisheries Law through Emergency Law Number 2 of 2006 due to the lack of coordination between agencies and the readiness of the courts; and the Traffic Law of 1992 through Emergency Law Number 1 of 1992 due to the uneven understanding among officials and the public. The government also revoked the implementation of the 1997 Manpower Law through Emergency Law Number 3 of 2000 due to strong public aspirations.
Based on this precedent, the civil society coalition is urging President Prabowo Subianto to immediately issue an emergency law to postpone the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code and open the path for a total overhaul that is more transparent and participatory. At this critical moment, the President's decision is deemed to determine the direction of criminal law reform: to become a more organized system, or to create new sources of chaos for the citizens.
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