Recently, the government has revoked as many as 3,143 bylaws that are considered problematic. In Yogyakarta the number of the laws being annulled is 83; these were issued between 1950’s to 1996.
State Constitutional Law expert of UGM, Oce Madril, M.A., said a bylaw could be revoked if it no longer is in accordance with higher laws or irrelevant to current condition, or the object of such regulations has gone, or hampering investment and development.
Oce Madril said on Tuesday (6/9) that “Bylaws can be revoked, too, if they incite racial, religious, or inter-group problems,” he said.
Oce Madril added that on the other hand certain bylaws need not be revoked such as those that emerged from the regional aspiration which show regional, cultural value and developments; instead, these should be retained.
“The bylaws on regional establishment need to be retained as they become the legal, historical basis of the presence of that region, including one on the territory of Yogyakarta Special Region,” he said.
On the bylaws that have been revoked for Yogyakarta, he said it would be possible that more would follow, because the regional government has actively amended the bylaws in line with new bylaws.
“Since the issuance of bylaw on Yogyakarta’s Specialty, the initiative of the regional government in Yogyakarta to amend bylaws is high enough,” he said. This is different from that in regions outside Java where amendments have not much been made due to low awareness to review old bylaws as well as lack of budget.