Legislation Targets in Indonesia...

The Indonesian way with legislation is for the parliament to set targets regarding how much legislation it is going to pass in a five year parliamentary term.

This is then broken down into annual targets. Within these annual targets there is some flexibility to ensure that the parliament has the ability to deal with emergency legislation that might arise as a result on an emerging and urgent happening, such as a global financial crisis for example.

The system also allows for the parliament to prioritise certain pieces of legislation where there is a specific need to ne met.

This system is known as the National Legislation Program (or Program Legislasi Nasional / Prolegnas). The 2010 legislation target was 70 bills. Yes, 70 pieces of important legislation were listed for passage throughout the parliamentary sittings designated for 2010. It is now July 2010, the Indonesian parliament has successfully managed to pass 0 of those targeted bills.

Yes, that is right readers, the Indonesian parliament has not managed to pass a single piece of legislation in 2010. The prolegnas for 2010 has been revised to just 17 pieces of legislation to be passed in 2010. Of these 17 pieces of legislation the two biggest priorities for the parliament are supposedly defense related; a defense cooperation bill with Russia and a ratification of a MOU with Brunei on similar defense issues. Meanwhile, the other priority legislation that the parliament wants to pass in what is left of this year include, among others, bills on immigration, fund transfers, money laundering, clemency, and public accountants.

There is little wonder that the parliament is roundly criticised for its work ethic and being nothing more than a junket where members seek to exploit the public purse in any way that they can. Based on this alone, it would be reasonable to argue that the current members are not earning their salaries, they are an embarrassment to themselves and to their constituents and to the country.

However, in that funny in a perverse kind of a way, the return of the parliament on Monday amid renewed calls for better and more consistent performance nearly did not get underway. The parliament barely managed to meet quorum in terms of members present. The failure of so many members to attend the session was written off to post-World Cup Final fever. Yet, like anything else, staying up late to watch football is hardly an excuse to skip work the next day!

Quite simply, the Indonesian people want better and they deserve better. Members of the Indonesian parliament shame, shame, shame on you as your performance record is a sad joke and a poor reflection on you!

This final image was just one that I found while searching the internet for images of the DPR. Unfortunately, it the place where I located it did not say what year it was taken, but it looks like it is an old one. If anyone who reads these rants of mine has any idea on when this picture might be dated, feel free to leave a comment with what you know.

Child Pornography and Artistic Merit...

It would seem that NSW is about to introduce legislation that removes artistic merit as a defense for images of children that are determined to be pornographic. The NSW Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, has said that a working group tasked with making recommendations on this matter has recommended that a defense of artistic merit must lapse once an image has been deemed to be pornographic.

Simply, whether the 'artist' in question produced the image as art or not becomes irrelevant with respect to the charge of producing, possessing, or distributing child porn material.

The question then becomes what about images that are not produced for artistic purposes, but rather are nothing more than personal family photos. For example, what if the Attorney-General had a happy snappy of one of his children or his grand children taking a bath. Is this producing or possessing child porn? What if in his apparent pride he shows the photograph to a colleague or places it on his computer as a screen saver and it is seen by members of his staff? Is this distributing child porn?

I am totally against child pornography. I find it objectionable in the extreme, abhorrent. I am certain that my views on this topic and subject have hardened since the birth of Will. The thought of him being exploited for child pornography is repugnant in the extreme. However, I really do not see what harm there is in either his mother, his grandparents, or his aunts and uncles having a picture of the little fella swimming but naked in the pool. I cannot fathom how I could be investigated, arrested, and prosecuted for producing, possessing, or distributing child pornography.

On the artistic front. I am not an artist and cannot make the arguments for artistic expression that an artist might need in producing images of children that may or may not push the boundaries of art and child porn. However, I do accept that artists have a right to that freedom of expression. An artist who takes a semi-naked picture of a child with the full consent of the parents of that child for the purposes of creating art that may later be exhibited should not lose the right to claim artistic merit as a defense because someone, probably a bureaucrat, has deemed the image to be child porn. The current recommendation would see a panel created to determine whether or not the image was a valid image of a child.

I am wondering whether in the common law there is a requirement for the commission of a crime to include not only the actus reus or the act, but also a requirement for mens rea, the intent. Before a crime can be proven is there not a need to determine the intent of the alleged offender to commit the crime charged?

It would seem to me that the removal of artistic merit as a defense removes a right to create art. Clearly, Bill Henson's work is not everyone's cuppa tea, but all the same neither is what Picasso or Rembrandt produced either.

Interestingly, many are arguing that this working group was set up in response to the furore surrounding Bill Henson and the closing down of an exhibition of his work. If this were true, then it seems a little silly considering his work was assessed by the relevant classification authorities in this area and determined to not breach any standards with respect to images involving children (including the photograph above).

There is certainly a need to tighten child pornography laws and to eliminate this scourge from the community. However, it seems that artists who produce images of children are the softest target available for the government on this front. The idea of removing the artistic merit defense for artists is evidence of the government's inability to deal appropriately and comprehensively with the scourge of child pornography.

There will undoubtedly be more to follow once the legislation is introduced to the NSW parliament.

A President With A Sense of Humour...

There has been much made of whether race is a factor in politics no matter where you live in the world. The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States of America was historic, perhaps for many reasons, but none more so than the fact he is a black man. The USA's first African-American president.

The current health care debate has had some commentators foaming at the mouth about whether or not the race card is being played in the sense that some people are anti-health bill for no other reason than the president is black. Obama has addressed these concerns in two ways, one a little more serious than the other.

The more serious version has Obama talking about the fact that the election showed that lots of folks voted for him irrespective of the colour of his skin, these folks were not only African-Americans, but Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, and a whole lot of others as well. He acknowledges that maybe some people voted for him because he is black and some others voted for the other fella, John McCain, because Obama is black.

The less serious version popped up on the David Letterman Late Show where Obama said, "First of all, I think it's important to realize that I was actually black before the election."

However, it is worth noting that Obama himself has rejected the racism claims as they relate to health care reform and the passage of a health care bill. It is interesting that race is now re-appearing and raising its ugly head after so much talk and discussion of the USA entering into a post-racial phase. Post-racial being used to indicate a period where issues no longer had to be defined on race as there was a common or shared challenge in facing the future. To many this was the hope that the "Yes, we can!" campaign envisaged.

Health care reform is not about race, but rather it is about selling public policy and selling reforms. Simply, it is not going to ultimately matter what the colour of your skin is if you do not have health insurance.

In any event, the irreverent humor displayed by a sitting president appearing on a late night comedy show says much about the man.