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House open to input on porn bill
Desy Nurhayati , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 09/18/2008 10:34 AM | Headlines
As debate rages over a proposed bill to ban pornography in the country, House of Representatives legislators said Wednesday they were open to public opinions on the draft.
A member of the House's special committee deliberating the bill, Azlaini Agus, said although the working group debating the formulation of the bill would endorse the final draft on Thursday, the schedule set for a House plenary session to pass the bill remained tentative.
"We have set a schedule for the deliberation of the bill, but it's subject to change," Azlaini of the National Mandate Party (PAN) told a public discussion.
The working group will submit the draft to the House consultative body to undergo further debate before the final draft is brought to a plenary session.
Pros and cons of the long-debated bill continued to emerge during the discussion hosted by the Office of State Minister for Women Empowerment.
Another member of the working group, Irsyad Sudiro of Golkar Party, said the bill would be very different from the original version, including changes made to more than half of the seven chapters and 44 articles of the original draft law.
"There will be no more violations of human rights, discrimination and criminalization against women," he said, rebuffing all the criticisms against the bill.
The Golkar Party is the largest faction at the House, occupying 125 of the total 550 seats. If PAN, which has 53 seats, is unanimous in supporting the bill, it is very likely the controversial bill will be passed.
Also in support of the bill are three Muslim-based factions; the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Star Reform Party (PBR), which control a combined 117 seats.
Critics remain suspicious the parties are supporting the bill only to woo public support ahead of the 2009 polls.
Only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) have openly challenged the bill. They also said they had exited the deliberation.
However, Azlaini denied the PDS had withdrawn. "In fact, it is only the PDI-P that opposes the bill. The rest, including the PDS, are still involved in the deliberation," she said.
State Minister for Women's Empowerment, Meuthia Farida Hatta, is a surprise defender of the bill. She said the country was in dire need of a law that could save the country's society from the negative impacts of uncensored pornography.
"We are trying to protect our future generations, rather than cause national disintegration," said Meutia, who chairs the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).
Azlaini said the House would welcome public aspirations concerning the bill. "Anyone who wants to provide input on the bill can write to us. We will accommodate them," she said.
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Iwan181 (not verified) — Fri, 09/19/2008 - 10:33am
These lawmakers have no proposals nor ideas for increasing the average daily wage of 3 dollars for many Indonesians and yet spend months on public taxes deliberating on this law; which is already covered by articles of law.
It does not cover why parents pay extra money to government teachers so their children can study in the morning class instead of the afternoon class when no teachers are around
It does not cover why tourism in the moslem areas of indonesia is non existent. Even Aceh's new governor realized this and is now allowing the sale of alcohol in hotels and ladies do not have to wear the Jilbab.
It does cover an exercise in wasting public money, frightening the Dhimmis as one government official mentioned in private and setting the stage for sharia law.
That being the case, in my capacity now believe and will canvass democratic regional governments to base any assistance and future aid to Indonesia based on respect of human rights first and the right of self determination for all those Dhimmi communities in Indonesia who have been betrayed by the tenets of this article.
Jon (not verified) — Thu, 09/18/2008 - 6:23pm
The porn bill is a cover up and the beginning towards an islamic state. It start with porn and then it goes to more personal issues like beliefs and political ideas. We all know what is going on but it seems nobody really concerns. What is surprising is that after seeing what the Taliban did after seeing women right in islamic countries, people are still going for it (especially woman) it doesn't make any sense. We all know that when islamic run the countries, it keeps those countries backward. Indonesia could become a major player in Asia and in the future could become a super power and the second biggest democratic country in the world after America with its 240mil. But if it keeps brawling of being the biggest muslim country in the world, well it's the same as saying we don't want development, we want to stay backwards or is it the major players like the multi nationals interest to keep indonesia on a tight rope. By becoming an islamic dictatorship Indonesia becomes easier to exploit as you only have to deal with the chief and if the country doesn't comply, you just give them sanction. Basically islamic countries are completely helpless and open to western exploitation of their natural resources, as Indonesia is extremely rich in gas and oil, we will see big changes in the counties constitution to bring it on his knee and stop it from becoming a major power like India or China.