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After weekend at hotel, lawmakers all but finalize new Criminal Code
The conclusion of the controversial, decades-long revision of the Criminal Code seems imminent after House of Representatives members met with a government team at a hotel over the weekend to finalize the bill.
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Activists from the Community Alliance for Democratic Justice stage a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Jakarta on Sunday. They invited the public to oppose the draft Criminal Code bill. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
T
he conclusion of the controversial, decades-long revision of the Criminal Code seems imminent after House of Representatives members met with a government team at the Fairmont Hotel in Central Jakarta over the weekend to finalize the bill.
The latest draft of the bill, a copy of which was seen by The Jakarta Post, will, among other things, outlaw consensual sex between unmarried persons, restore a ban on insulting the President that had been repealed by the Constitutional Court and forbid two unmarried people from living together "as husband and wife".
"Regarding the political and legal aspects, the substance of the Criminal Code bill is complete," United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Arsul Sani told reporters on Monday. "All that remains are some editorial questions, which we will leave to the linguists."
Arsul, a member of the bill's working committee, denied that the meetings, which were not open to the public and were not announced beforehand, were an attempt to hide from public view.
"Meetings that should be open are deliberation or debate meetings," he said. "Do you need to know the placement of the periods and commas and whether we use the word 'toward' or 'over'? That sort of meeting doesn't need [to be open]."
He added that the meetings were held in a hotel because the House building was not available on weekends.
Fellow working committee member and NasDem Party lawmaker Taufiqulhadi said the new Criminal Code bill would soon replace the current one, which was adopted almost wholesale from Dutch colonial law.
