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'Sexual deviance propaganda' bill mysteriously on priority list
The massive 2019-2024 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) set by the House of Representatives lists 248 bills, including four proposed omnibus laws, an ambitious undertaking considering that the previous House only managed to pass 91 out of the 189 bills in the 2014-2019 Prolegnas
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span>The massive 2019-2024 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) set by the House of Representatives lists 248 bills, including four proposed omnibus laws, an ambitious undertaking considering that the previous House only managed to pass 91 out of the 189 bills in the 2014-2019 Prolegnas.
One of the more curious entries on the list, which was approved at a plenary session of the House and signed by House Speaker Puan Maharani last month, is a "sexual deviance propaganda" bill put at no. 74.
The title of the bill echoes the country’s commonly spouted rhetoric against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, who are often accused of spreading "pro-LGBT propaganda" by conservatives.
No one in the House seems to know who proposed the bill, despite it being listed in the official Prolegnas document.
United Development Party lawmaker Achmad Baidowi, the deputy chairman of the House's legislative body (Baleg) responsible for compiling the Prolegnas, said that he "forgot" which House faction or member first suggested that the bill be put on the list.
"I forgot because there were so many suggestions," he told reporters at the House compound in South Jakarta on Thursday. "If I'm not mistaken, there were about 300 that were proposed. We combed through to pick about 200."
He said the bill did not have a draft or even an academic paper yet and was still only a title and an oral description given by the proposer (whom he didn't remember) at one of the Baleg meetings to compile the list.
"More or less [the aim of the bill] is to ensure that future generations are not deviant," Baidowi said, without elaborating on what was considered deviant.
"Don't worry too much about discrimination. The bill hasn't even [been drafted] yet," he added in response to a question about civil society concerns about the bill.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker Diah Pitaloka of House Commission VIII overseeing social affairs also said that she did not know who proposed the bill.
"It was not proposed by commission VIII," she told The Jakarta Post. "We proposed the natural disasters bill and the sexual violence bill."
In 2016, the conservative Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) vocally advocated for the creation of a similar sounding “sexual deviance” bill aimed against the LGBT community.
"The law must stop the [LGBT] movement so that it has no room to develop in Indonesia. Their victims should also be saved, because they are also children of the nation," PKS executive Jazuli Juwaini said in a statement on the PKS's official website at the time.
However, PKS lawmakers also seem to be unaware of the sexual deviance propaganda bill's origins.
"As far as I know, the PKS did not propose this bill," PKS executive and House member Mardani Ali Sera told the Post.
Ronald Rofiandri, a researcher at the Indonesian Center for the Study of Law and Policy, which monitored the Prolegnas formation process, said that bills could be proposed by the government, the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), civil society members, House factions, House commissions or individual House members.
"The bill seems most likely to have been proposed by either a House faction or an individual House member because as far as I know, the commissions all proposed existing bills that were not passed in the previous legislative term," he said.
Ronald said that House regulations did not require a bill to have an academic paper or draft to be placed on the Prolegnas long list. Those were only needed if a bill was placed on the annual Prolegnas priority list, which includes 50 bills for 2020.
He added, however, that based on its title, the bill could potentially go against the tenets of legislative theory.
"Generally, there are two questions that we should ask about a bill. First, should its subject be regulated? Second, should it be regulated by a law?" he said. "From the title, it seems that the bill fails on both criteria. It sounds very abstract and potentially goes too far into citizens' private lives."
Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat) chairman Ricky Gunawan said the title indicated that it would be aimed at the LGBT community.
"The bill seems like it is only rejecting the 'propaganda'. But this can be read as just the first step toward the rejection of the LGBT community, in legal terms, in Indonesia," he said.
Unlike in other Southeast Asian nations, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country has seen a rise in anti-LGBT sentiment in recent years.
