MPR Chairman Calls on Int`l World to Battle Narcotics Together  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman, Zulkifli Hasan, has called on the international community to further strengthen cooperation in combating narcotics. Drug abuse and trafficking is an extraordinary crime that threatens the world and can be used as a weapon in a proxy war to paralyze the power of a state.

It was delivered by Zulkifli Hasan in his speech at the International Parliamentary Conference "Parliamentarians Against Drugs" at the Russian State Duma Parliament Building, Moscow, Monday (4/12).

According to Zulkifli Hasan, abuse of narcotics can harm individuals and society, and is a great danger to human life and political life in the field of politics, security, economic, and socio-cultural. Therefore, the misuse of narcotics is not only the responsibility of the Government, but also the responsibility of all citizens of the world.

"Through this forum, we all hope to make a real contribution in terms of narcotics eradication," said Zulkifli Hasan.

At the conference, Zulkifli Hasan conveyed the efforts and role of Indonesia in the eradication of narcotics, such as the appeal of the President of the Republic of Indonesia concerning the great war against all forms of narcotics crime, the Indonesian National Narcotics Agency's (BNN) crackdown on narcotics eradication and the issuance of legislation products by the Indonesian Parliament to counter the circulation narcotics.

Based on BNN data, currently the number of narcotic users in Indonesia is around 5.9 million people with an age range of 10-59 years. The increase in users reaches 13.6 percent every year. From the results of the study in 2016, it was found that 1.9 percent of student and student groups, or 2 out of 100 students use narcotics. In addition, the death toll from narcotics reaches 40-50 people every day.

"Narcotics control in Indonesia is not enough to be done only through eradication and legal sanction, but also to promote the noble values of the Indonesian nation to all Indonesian people summarized in four Pillars of Nationality, namely Pancasila, 1945 Constitution, NKRI and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika ," said Zulkifli Hasan who was greeted enthusiastically by the conference participants.

The International Parliamentary Conference aims to enhance inter-parliamentary cooperation and strengthen the international legal framework in the fight against narcotics deployment and use, prevention and treatment of narcotics addicts. The themes discussed in the conference are "Drug Dependence: Modern Approaches to Treatment and Rehabilitation", "Improving the Legislative Regulations on the Fight against Illicit Drug Trafficking", and "Role of NGOs in Combating the Drug Threat".

The conference was opened by Russian State Duma Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and was attended by top Russian officials such as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova and Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yuri Fedotov. A number of Parliamentary leaders from 42 countries also attended the conference, including from Iran, Pakistan, Ecuador and Uzbekistan.

The presence of the Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly was accompanied by the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Russian Federation concurrently the Republic of Belarus M. Wahid Supriyadi, and several delegates of Indonesian MPR members as well as members of the House of Representatives, namely Dessy Ratnasari, Laila Istiana and Yayuk Basuki, and Secretary General MPR RI Ma'aruf Cahyono.

During his stay in Moscow, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly also held a bilateral meeting with Russian State Duma Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Vice-Chairman of the Federation of Federal Federation of the Federation of Ilyas Umakhanov to discuss steps to strengthen cooperation between Parliaments of both countries. In addition, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly also held talks with Parliament Speakers Equador, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.

TEMPO