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Major political parties oppose controversial 'bedroom bill'
The parties claim they were blindsided by members who support the bill.
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Gender equality illustration (Shutterstock/File)
F
ollowing the revelation of controversial articles in the family resilience bill, major political parties have begun challenging it, claiming that the parties had never wanted the draft to enter the legislative process.
Although the bill is currently included in the 2020 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), the three largest parties in the House of Representatives — the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party and the Gerindra Party — have denied they were officially supporting the bill, saying any expression of support came from individual members acting on their own.
PDI-P lawmaker Diah Pitaloka, who is a member of the House Commission VIII overseeing religious and social affairs, said the party had already issued an official rejection of the draft of the bill since it was brought to the House's legislation body (Baleg).
A draft bill would not become a bill and enter the legislative process, or even become a priority, without monitoring by Baleg.
Golkar faction chair Baleg, Nurul Arifin said the party had been “blindsided” as it did not know that one of its lawmakers had supported the bill.
The bill was initiated by five lawmakers from four factions in the House, namely Endang Maria Astuti of Golkar, Ledia Hanifa and Netty Prasetiyana from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Sodik Mudjahid from Gerindra and Ali Taher from the National Mandate Party (PAN).
One controversial provision of the bill, which has been dubbed the "bedroom bill" for its intention to regulate domestic affairs and privacy, stipulates rigid roles for husbands and wives in an apparent setback to gender-equality efforts in the country over the past two decades.
