T

he alcohol prohibition bill is one step closer to being passed into law, with political factions at the House of Representatives agreeing in a plenary session on Friday to start its deliberation.

All 10 political party factions gave written approval to the deliberation of the bill during the plenary meeting, giving the House full authority in the drafting of its contents.

The House is expected to start deliberating the bill in the next sitting session, which commences next month after the Idul Fitri holiday.

Deputy chairman of the House'€™s legislative body (Baleg), Firman Soebagyo, said the next step in the deliberation of the bill would be what he called a '€œharmonization'€ stage, during which some of its clauses would be evaluated and further discussed by lawmakers.

Firman said the alcohol prohibition bill would be an important piece of legislation that needed to be passed soon in order to provide a legal basis for the control of the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

'€œThe reason this bill is so important to pass is that it will fill a legal void that has affected how people consume alcoholic beverages. We are aware of its pros and cons, but we need a legal foundation for the management of alcoholic beverages,'€ Firman, a Golkar Party politician, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Firman added that the bill was geared more toward '€œthe control of illicit alcohol production and consumption'€, especially in terms of overcoming the distribution of moonshine.

Lawmakers will likely focus on the control and management of alcoholic beverages instead of a complete ban, Firman said.

'€œThe draft adopted by the House today is not final as there are several changes that need to be made,'€ he said.

Among the possible changes to the bill is a clause that stipulates that people caught consuming alcohol could face a minimum of three months and maximum of two years'€™ imprisonment, or a fine of between Rp 10 million (US$750) and Rp 50 million.

'€œThat clause has been the subject of debate because of its major implications on basic rights and tourism,'€ Firman said.

The bill has a clause allowing exemptions, which includes '€œconsumption for customary use, religious rituals, tourism, in pharmaceutical use and in places authorized under the regulations'€.

In the current bill, however, there is no information on whether the consumption of alcohol is prohibited only in public or whether it would include private consumption.

The current bill also has no stipulation on the dangerous methanol-based alcohol that is often used in moonshine.

The bill also does not mention the role of the government in raising awareness of the dangers of alcohol consumption.

Because of the urgency of controlling the spread of bootleg liquor, Firman hoped the bill would be passed by the end of the year.

Although all 10 factions at the House support the bill, some factions, especially Muslim-based political parties, wanted more stringent rules against alcohol.

Almuzzammil Yusuf, spokesperson for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, recently said the party backed the bill and want tighter control given that 18,000 people died every year as a result of alcohol consumption. Based on the statistics, he said that Indonesia should strictly regulate alcoholic beverages because it was '€œa religious country'€.

Even so, the PKS faction acknowledged the concerns of tourism players.

Almuzzammil said the bill needed to accommodate the interests of all stakeholders.

Contacted separately, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, who is the chairman of the National Institute of Health Research and Development (NIHRD), emphasized the dangers of alcohol consumption, which he said had caused around 3.3 million deaths per year globally.

He did, however, also highlight the fact that only 34 percent of the UN'€™s World Health Organization member countries were reported to have national policies on alcohol.

Earlier, Tjandra warned against the hazards of methanol-based bootleg liquor, stating that it could damage the nervous system, the digestive tract and lead to blindness.