Indonesia’s parliament approved Tuesday legislation that would outlawpre-marital sex while making other sweeping changes to the criminal code –a move critics deemed as a setback to the country’s freedoms.
After the controversial new criminal code received the majority of votesfrom lawmakers during the plenary session, deputy house speaker Sufmi DascoAhmad banged the gavel to signal the text was approved and shouted “legal”.
Rights groups had protested against the amendments, denouncing a crackdownon civil liberties and a shift towards fundamentalism in the world’s mostpopulous Muslim-majority nation.
“We have tried our best to accommodate the important issues and differentopinions which were debated. However, it is time for us to make ahistorical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonialcriminal code we inherited behind,” Yasonna Laoly, Minister of Law andHuman Rights, told parliament.
Some of the most controversial articles in the newly passed code arecriminalising premarital and extra-marital sex, as well as the cohabitationof unmarried couples.
There are also fears these rules could have a major impact on the LGBTQcommunity in Indonesia where gay marriage is not allowed.
The spokesperson of the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s criminal code billdissemination team, Albert Aries, defended the amendments before the voteand said the law would protect marriage institutions.
He said acts of pre-marital and extra-marital sex could only be reported bya spouse, parents or children, limiting the scope of the amendment.
But rights groups slammed the legislation as morality policing andactivists denounced it as a crackdown on civil and political freedoms.
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A revision of Indonesia’s criminal code, which stretches back to the Dutchcolonial era, has been debated for decades.
Rights groups say the proposals underscore a growing shift towardsfundamentalism in a country long hailed for its religious tolerance, withsecularism enshrined in its constitution.
“We are going backward… repressive laws should have been abolished butthe bill shows that the arguments of scholars abroad are true, that ourdemocracy is indisputably in decline,” Amnesty International Indonesiadirector Usman Hamid told AFP.
About a hundred people protested against the bill Monday and unfurled ayellow banner that read “reject the passing of the criminal code revision”,with some dropping flower petals on the banner as is done for a funeral.
Abdul Ghofar, a campaigner of Indonesia’s environmental group WALHI, saidthe symbolic acts signified the public’s “grief” over the impending passageof the revision.
Another protest to reject the new law is scheduled to be held on Tuesday infront of the parliament building. -APP/AFP
