Indonesia passes tough legal reform banning sex outside of marriage

The Indonesian Parliament approved on Tuesday a controversial reform of its penal code that sets the largest nation in Southeast Asia – with 272 million inhabitants – back several decades in the rights achieved in matters of sexual, religious and expression freedoms.

The reform, the broadest in the history of the largest archipelago in the world (with 17,000 islands), includes articles that prohibit extramarital sex, cohabitation between unmarried couples, apostasy or defamation against leaders.

This reduction in freedoms, promoted by its president, Joko Widodo, comes shortly after the country and its president received wide international recognition for the organization of the G-20 summit that was held last November in Bali.

The new code, which will apply to both Indonesians and foreigners, has been approved with the support of all political parties despite fears the legislation would scare tourists away from its idyllic tropical shores and hurt investment.

Dozens of NGOs and civil groups have taken to the streets to denounce the changes, according to local press reports.

"It has been 59 years of waiting," declared the Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Edward Omar Sharief, after the House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of the new penal code, which will enter into force in 2025, to allow draft the applicable regulations.

For his part, the president of the parliamentary commission in charge of reviewing the new text, Bambang Wuryanto, said that "the old code was a vestige of the era of Dutch colonial domination, and it no longer has a place."

Among the most criticized "moral" clauses are the penalty of up to one year in prison for having sex outside of marriage (in any of its forms) and the punishment of six months in prison for couples who live together without getting married.

Currently, Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population on the planet and a liberal tradition, prohibits adultery, but not premarital relations.

In 2021 the veil or hijab ceased to be mandatory in schools.

Albert Aries, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, has stated that only the father, spouse or child of suspected violators of these moral regulations can sue: “The aim is to protect the institution of marriage and Indonesian values, while it protects the privacy of the community and denies third parties the right to denounce this matter or act as judges in the name of morality”, he stated.

Activists hold banners during a demonstration against Indonesia's new Penal Code in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The posters read: "Reject the reform of the Penal Code" and "The new Penal Code gags freedom of the press."

SLAMET RIYADI (AP)

Human rights groups say these laws disproportionately affect women, LGTBI people and ethnic minorities in the country.

Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, has denounced this step on Twitter: “Indonesia proposes to move down the path of disaster and violation of rights by criminalizing sexual relations outside of marriage.

This outrageous proposed penal code violates international privacy rights standards and will seriously harm the country."

Other legal changes that, according to critics, undermine civil liberties in the third largest democracy on the planet are the sentence of between 18 months and three years behind bars for "attacking the dignity" of the president or vice president or insulting the State institutions;

the outlawing of apostasy;

the penalty of up to six years in prison for spreading false news and the prohibition of disseminating opinions contrary to the ideology of the State or organizing protests without prior notification.

In response to the criticism that has been resonating since last week, the Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, told legislators on Tuesday that "it is not easy for a multicultural and multiethnic country to develop a penal code that can accommodate all interests".

The Indonesian government had been discussing a revision of the penal code for decades.

In 2019, the huge protests, after the re-election of Joko Widodo, winner of the presidential elections on April 17, was announced, stopped the approval of the new norm.

Since then, lawmakers have tried to water down some of the provisions.

However, Widodo has urged Parliament to approve the bill this year, before the political climate heats up ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for early 2024.

This Tuesday, several national newspapers have condemned the new laws in their editorials.

newspaper

maintains that the code has "authoritarian overtones", while the

expresses its "deep concern" at the future application of the text.

The tourism industry has also shown its rejection of the law, which comes at a time when the economy and tourism are beginning to recover after the pandemic.

Maulana Yusran, undersecretary of the country's Tourist Association, considers that the new code is "totally counterproductive" and regrets "that the Government has closed its eyes", quotes the Reuters agency.

Since the outbreak of the health crisis, Indonesia, and especially the island of Bali, has tried to attract "digital nomads" to settle on its shores by offering a more flexible visa.

And pre-pandemic tourism levels of around six million visitors to Bali alone are expected to be reached by 2025.

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