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House factions deadlocked over porn definition
The House of Representatives has decided to postpone the deliberation of the anti-pornography bill until late November, with two groups still at odds over the bill's definition of "pornography"
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he House of Representatives has decided to postpone the deliberation of the anti-pornography bill until late November, with two groups still at odds over the bill's definition of "pornography".
Agung Sasongko, deputy head of the House's special committee deliberating the bill, said the opposing groups in the legislature had failed to reach an agreement on the definition after a three-day meeting outside the House last week.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) insist on excluding indecent acts from the definition of pornography, but eight rival factions disagree.
Agung, a PDI-P legislator, said the bill was unchanged since its Sept. 4, 2008, form in which pornography was defined as "man-made sexuality materials either in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, voice, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations, gestures, or other forms of communicative messages through various kinds of media; and or performances in front of the public, which may incite sexual desire and or violate moral ethics in the community".
Fellow PDI-P legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari said her party and the PDS wanted the definition to "focus" and "stick" to only graphic forms of pornography.
Eva said the two factions demanded the bill also cover other forms of sexual exploitation, including sexual harassment, while the eight opposing factions wanted it to cover only those related to obscenity.
Agung said that with the House going into recess in Nov. 1, the deliberation of the bill, first discussed at the legislature four years ago, would resume in late November.
Special committee chairman Balkan Kaplale of the Democratic Party said last week there had been "drastic changes" to the bill following strong opposition to the initial draft.
Committee member Husein Abdul Azis said the bill would make several exemptions, including for tourists wearing bikinis at resorts such as Bali.
"The porn bill will treat recreational and leisure areas differently," he said.
However, Reform Institute executive director Yudi Latif said such exemptions were "discriminative", arguing the law should apply to all people without discriminating against certain groups.
Yudi said the bill should be rejected because it went against the freedom of expression granted by the Constitution.
"Even if the majority of House factions support the bill, we have to see how far the deliberation process has developed," Yudi said at a discussion over the bill.
"It's obvious our Constitution guarantees the rights of all citizens, so any act violating these rights should be considered unconstitutional and should be criminalized."
Kamala Chandra Kirana, chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) that hosted the discussion, said many aspects of the bill could lead to the "victimization of women".
"If the bill really wants to address sexual harassment and exploitation cases, it shouldn't be politicized. Pornography is just one of the elements in sexual exploitation," she said.
