Indonesia Law Report (ILR)

Legislative Update 01/2010

 

Earlier this year, the House of Representative presented the academic draft on the Law on Public Accountants (download the academic draft here, in Bahasa). The current version of the draft law in its preamble does not seem to provide enough justification on why accounting services has to be regulated. It only states that at present, there is not enough regulation on the profession and that more rules are required to provide ‘legal certainty’ for clients and public accountants.

The academic draft does contain some justifications on why the accounting industry needs to be regulated, among other, that the profession attempts to reduce information asymmetry between principal and agents of an undertaking and provide them with financial information to back up their business decision. However, this is not adequately enshrined in the draft Law.

ILR’s sources at the House of Representative commented that the real aim of the draft law is to curtail the ever expanding growth of foreign accounting firms and provide opportunity for local firms to grow. Provisions regulating foreign accounting firms (Articles 17 and 13 of the current Draft) will become a contentious subject to be debated. On these articles, the number of foreign partners and foreign workers in an accounting firm is limited.

ILR will closely monitor the Draft Law on Public Accountant. If you require more information or tailor made service, please contact movanet@gmail.com

The ILR entered into agreement with Amazon yesterday to deliver the blog to Kindle devices through its Kindle Publishing program. If you subscribe to ILR through Amazon, the content will be delivered directly to your Kindle device through Whispernet. Note that Amazon impose a $ 1,99 monthly charge for this subscription and so far, the program will only work if your Kindle country setting is set to United States. Click here to go to ILR’s Amazon Page.

 

 

But, there is a workaround! You can directly download ILR in a mobi format to be used in your Kindle for free by clicking this feed in your Kindle browser. Once the feed goes to the library of your Kindle device, it will provide a link for you to update its content.

Enjoy reading ILR in your Kindle!

 

 

                                                     

 

Press Release: Indonesia’s Attorney General Lost its Power to Ban Books

The Indonesian Constitutional Court in a 7-1 ruling pronounced last Wednesday, October 13^th, that the Indonesian Attorney General is stripped from its power to ban books. This ruling is an important breakthrough for the freedom of expression in Indonesia.

Last January, two lawyers from the Center for Law Information, Rahmat Bagja and Fatahillah Hoed submitted a petition to the Constitutional Court demanding the Court to revoke Law No. 4 PNPS 1963 which provides the legal basis to the Attorney General to ban books.

The lawyers successfully pleaded their case before the Constitutional Court. The Court decided in Wednesday that Law No. 4 PNPS 1963 was invalidated. In the future, banning of books will have to be conducted through a court proceeding.  

Indonesia is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has therefore, the international obligation to protect the freedom of expression. In the past, book banning has been used by the New Order authoritarian regime to tackle political dissents.

Jakarta, October 14^th, 2010

 

Center for Law Information (CeLI)

Indonesia Law Report (ILR)                                                             

 

Picture: Mr Rahmat Bagja and Mr. Fatahillah Hoed at the Constitutional Court’s Judicial Review of Law No. 4 PNPS 1963