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House set to pass new criminal code today
Among the most controversial revisions to the code are articles that would penalise sex outside of marriage with up to one year in jail andprohibit cohabitation between unmarried couples. Insulting the president and spreading views counter to the secular national ideology, the Pancasila, will also be outlawed.
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University students protest against the revision of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in front of the House of Representatives compound, on Monday, Sept. 23, 2019. (JP/Donny Fernando)
T
he House of Representatives is expected to ratify sweeping changes to its criminal code on Tuesday, senior officials confirmed, in a legal overhaul that critics say could curb freedoms and police morality in Indonesia.
Among the most controversial revisions to the code are articles that would penalise sex outside of marriage with up to one year in jail andprohibit cohabitation between unmarried couples. Insulting the president and spreading views counter to the secular national ideology, the Pancasila, will also be outlawed.
Legal experts and civil society groups say such changes to the penal code are a "huge setback" for the world's third-largest democracy.
"The state cannot manage morality. The government's duty is not as an umpire between conservative and liberal Indonesia," said Bivitri Susanti, a law expert from the Jakarta-based Jentera School of Law.
Deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, and Bambang Wuryanto, head of the commission overseeing the revision, told Reuters that parliament would hold a plenary session on Tuesday to ratify the new code.
Decades in the making, the revision of the country's colonial-era penal code has sparked mass protests in recent years, although the response has been considerably more muted this year.
Daniel Winarta, a University of Indonesia student, was among a small crowd of protestors that gathered outside the House in Jakarta on Monday.
"On cohabitation, for example, it's clearly a private matter," he said. "We will keep rejecting this."
The House had planned to ratify a draft new code in September 2019, but nationwide demonstrations over perceived threats to civil liberties halted its passage.
Legislators have since watered down some of the articles deemed most contentious.
The latest articles on sex outside marriage and cohabitation state such complaints can only be reported by close relatives such as a spouse, parent or child. Meanwhile, only the president can file a complaint about being insulted, but such a crime will carry a three-year jail sentence.
Articles on customary law, blasphemy, protesting without notification and spreading views divergent from the Pancasila were all legally problematic because they could be widely interpreted, Bivitri said.
Once ratified, the new code will come into effect in three years' time as the government and related institutions draft related implementing regulations.
