Indonesia's Parliament passes law barring extramarital sex, curbs dissent

The move to revise the penal code is meant to shed Indonesia's colonial ties to the Netherlands, Indonesia's Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna H Laoly said

Indonesian lawmakers has passed a contentious criminal code that outlaws extramarital sex and raises penalty on child abortions as part of legislation that sparked violent protests when introduced in 2019. 
 

Parliament passed the bill at a plenary session on Tuesday, which also adds limits to how much people can criticize the president and public institutions, and restricts the rights of LGBTQ citizens. The next step is for President Joko Widodo to sign it off.
 

Indonesia’s Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna H Laoly, told Parliament that Jokowi has agreed to issue the law. The move to revise the penal code is meant to shed Indonesia’s colonial ties to the Netherlands, Laoly said. The existing penal code dates back to the era when Indonesia was a Dutch colony.
 

“We have tried to accommodate feedback on various issues as best as we could,” said Laoly, adding, “We have made a historic decision to do away with the Dutch’s heritage law.”
 

Though the different party factions in parliament approved for the bill to be passed, some urged the government to be cautious in enforcing the law to protect the rights of the public, especially the freedom of speech, and for journalists not to be criminalised in carrying out their duties. 

Iskan Qolba Lubis, a member of the Islamist political party Prosperous Justice Party got into a brief argument with the House when he called for the removal of the provision that penalizes criticisms against the government as well as the president and vice-president. Having the provision would wind back democracy in Indonesia and betrays the objective of ‘reformasi’ — reforms in Bahasa Indonesia — which was the reason for the ouster of the dictatorial president Soeharto in 1998. Such a provision could be abused by future leaders, he said.
 

“This provision will take away the rights of citizens to voice their opinions. This could be abused by future leaders,” Lubis said. “Throughout the whole world, citizens have to criticize their governments.”
 

Days of demonstrations erupted after the bill was introduced in 2019, prompting President Joko Widodo to delay the legislation in order to get more feedback from the public. In the end, little was changed, signaling the strength of Indonesia’s conservative religious parties.

WHAT THE BILL OUTLAWS

• Bill adds limits to how much people can criticise the President and public institutions
• Restricts rights of LGBTQ citizens
• Parents or children will be able to report unmarried couples to the police if they suspect them of having sex
• Cohabitation to be punishable by six months in prison or a fine, although only if reported to the police by parents, children, or a spouse