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strong>April 14, p1

A priority bill initiated by the House of Representatives has proposed banning all consumption of alcoholic beverages, with imprisonment of between three months and two years for anyone caught consuming alcohol. The bill on the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, a copy of which has been obtained by The Jakarta Post, will put in place a ban on the sale, production, distribution and consumption of all beverages containing more than 1 percent alcohol.

Your comments:

This is sharia posing as a health law. This is militants attacking the pillars of pluralism and religious tolerance, which are protected by Pancasila. This terrible law needs to be resisted as it represents the creeping danger of Islamic fundamentalism.

Lasem Benny

Yes, the thing about commercially produced alcohol/beer is that it is quality controlled, with no nasty ingredients added that will kill you. To ban this is more than stupidity; it is murderous and the number of deaths from poisonous moonshine will only explode.

Lise Buckridge  

What needs to be banned is oplosan (bootleg) beverages or drinks that are badly processed and will kill you, certainly the type of alcohol that is also mixed with mosquito repellant. Educate people not to mix things and drink them without thinking. I think the lawmakers were drunk when they proposed the bill to ban beer. Cheers!

Simba

Imprisonment of up to 10 years for drinking beer or wine is absurd. The health reasons stated for backing this bill are nonsense. There are numerous scientific research findings showing that drinking a few alcoholic beverages (such as red wine) a day is actually good for your health. There are no scientific reports proving that drinking one or two glasses of beer or wine a day is bad for your health.

Do they want to ban all kinds of other edibles that can be abused? Yes, of course, if you eat too much salt at once you will get very sick and could die and if you eat certain regular food in quantities not intended it would be very bad for your health and you could die. This is not freedom of choice for the people but unacceptable government harassment of the people in my view.

They think this will make people healthier, which is downright bull. Consuming too much sugar, too much unhealthy street-food and too many chemical additives in food is 100 times unhealthier than drinking beer and wine in moderation, so they should ban those things at the same time while they are at it. And if they think it means crime will decrease, they are just totally wrong! So wrong!

Cardura

I think they should include an exemption in the law for non-Muslims to be allowed to consume alcohol. Even super-Islamic countries have this rule in place.

Since it is also about religion (and not just about health '€” as if the House really cares about that) there should be a separation not only by areas that are mostly non-Islamic but for individuals as well.

Norris

Special areas could be created where we could drink alcoholic beverages and when outside the restricted zones a prison term would apply. So in an alcohol-free zone sharia would prevail and people would therefore pray in public and drink in private.

In the alcohol-permitted zone, people would drink in public and consider praying an option.

Animi

I fully understand Islamic teaching against alcohol. What I do not understand is the selective application of Islamic law. Does this selective application not corrupt youth? Does it not show people that a government can use the most holy book to further its own agenda?

Muslim organization Muhammadiyah declared smoking haram (forbidden) in 2010 whereas the organization had previously listed smoking as merely makruh (to be avoided)

Why does smoking continue to be legal? Is this not harmful also? It is a fact that smoking kills far more in Indonesia than alcohol. Is it right for a Muslim leader to enforce only laws that protect big business and the moneyed elite?

Elbony

Don'€™t you realize that all of those other problems will simply solve themselves once alcohol is removed from the situation and our youth have their morals back?

If you doubt this, just look at all the other countries that have adopted alcohol restrictions. A celebration of the most peaceful and prosperous places on earth and soon Indonesia will be among their blessed ranks.

Loro Blonyo

This nonsense will surely not pass so I wonder what they'€™re actually up to. Are they just trying to give the impression that they are actually doing something or is there something they'€™re trying to hide and throw this preposterous idea to the public
instead?

If health is their main concern, there are other more important things to address, like food safety, GMOs, sugar and additives in processed foods, banning cigarettes, monitoring doctors who like to prescribe unnecessary drugs to their patients, etc.

Laoerlas

Indonesia is being affected by globalization and now we have the government trying to bring us back to where we were. What will happen to those many businesses around Jakarta and many other places in this country? What will happen to the Rp 50 billion contributed to the 20.26 percent share the Jakarta city administration has in PT Delta? What will happen to the many people who will lose their jobs if hotels and bars, cafés and pubs start closing down?

Was all this taken into consideration before the lawmakers thought of going public with such a ludicrous idea? The minorities are always the target. It is acceptable to apply a ban in, for instance, Aceh, which applies sharia.

However, applying the ban throughout the nation will indeed result in a dangerous economic situation. People have their rights and they should have their say. Instead, why don'€™t lawmakers try to decipher this panacea of morals and culture by prohibiting people under 21 age of age from purchasing alcohol?

Ashton

Why don'€™t they ban cigarettes, which are proven to be bad for your health and the cause of so many diseases and death? Why do they have double standards when it comes to the tobacco industry?

Could it be because we are the largest producer of clove cigarettes and we import most of our alcohol? Saying alcohol has led to a moral crisis is so unbelievably stupid. Why don'€™t you ban the Internet as well, since, with the lawmakers'€™ flawed logic, they can promote porn (which some of our House members seem to enjoy so much).

Cayadi Nuralam

It is clearly not about health or they'€™d be making it illegal not to drink a glass of red wine a day as research shows that a person who drinks a glass of red wine a day will be healthier and outlive someone who doesn'€™t (all other things being equal).

Fred Frogley