Sat, Dec 03, 2022 page5

• Indonesia to penalize premarital sex

  SECOND ATTEMPT: An overhaul of the criminal code is expected this month, after a similar move was in 2019 stymied by large-scale protests in the Muslim-majority country

  • Reuters, JAKARTA
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  The Indonesian parliament is this month expected to pass a new criminal code that would penalize sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have said.

  The legislative overhaul would also ban insulting the Indonesian president or state institutions, and expressing any views counter to the country’s state ideology.

  Cohabitation before marriage is also banned.

  

  Students run during a protest against an overhaul of Indonesia’s criminal code in Jakarta on Sept. 25, 2019.

  Photo: AP

  Decades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on Dec. 15, Indonesian Deputy Minister of Justice Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej said.

  “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he told Reuters in an interview.

  Bambang Wuryanto, a lawmaker involved in the draft, said the new code could be passed by as early as next week.

  

  Indonesian President Joko Widodo, center, and government officials enter the parliament building in Jakarta on Aug. 16 last year.

  Photo: REUTERS

  The code, if passed, would apply to Indonesian citizens and foreigners alike, with business groups expressing concern about what damage the rules might have on Indonesia’s image as a holiday and investment destination.

  The draft has the support of some Islamic groups in a country where conservatism is on the rise, although opponents say that it reverses liberal reforms enacted after former Indonesian president Suharto in 1998 stepped down after leading the country for 31 years.

  A previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019, but sparked nationwide protests. Tens of thousands of people at the time demonstrated against a raft of laws, especially those seen to regulate morality and free speech, which they said would curtail civil liberties.

  Critics say that minimal changes to the code have been made since then, although the government has in the past few months held public consultations to provide information about the changes.

  Some changes that have been made include a provision that could allow the death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment after 10 years of good behavior.

  The criminalization of abortion, with the exception of rape victims, and imprisonment for “black magic,” remain in the code.

  According to the latest draft dated Thursday last week, sex outside marriage, which can only be reported by limited parties such as close relatives, carries a maximum one-year prison sentence.

  Insulting the president, a charge that can only be reported by the president, carries a maximum of sentence of three years.

  Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has hundreds of regulations at the local level that discriminate against women, religious minorities and LGBT people.

  Just weeks after Indonesia chaired a G20 meeting that saw its position elevated on the global stage, business sector representatives say the draft code sends the wrong message about Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

  “For the business sector, the implementation of this customary law shall create legal uncertainty and make investors re-consider investing in Indonesia,” Indonesian Employers Association deputy chairperson Shinta Widjaja Sukamdani said.

  Clauses related to morality would “do more harm than good,” especially for businesses engaged in the tourism and hospitality sectors, she said.
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