TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Major political parties oppose controversial 'bedroom bill'
Following 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
Change Size
F
span>Following 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.
Nurul Arifin, Golkar's representative on Baleg, 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.
Article 25 of the draft bill stipulates that wives are obliged to "take care of household affairs properly" in addition to maintaining the household's unity and serving her family members well. Meanwhile, the husband's duties are confined to supporting and protecting the family.
Another controversial article of the bill aims to eliminate "sexual deviation", which, the bill says, is a threat to family resilience. The bill defines sexual deviation as the "urge to achieve sexual satisfaction through unusual and unreasonable ways, which include sadism, masochism, incest and homosexuality".
Nurul said Endang should have consulted the faction before proposing the bill. She claimed that the party had opposed the plan to make the bill a legislative priority.
“We shouldn’t intervene in people’s domestic affairs. Every family, even every child, has their rights,” she said.
Gerindra lawmaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, who is also a House deputy speaker, said the majority of its faction members had stated that they did not agree with the bill.
"We’ve never proposed it. It was proposed by individuals,” he said.
Sufmi added that the Gerindra faction would question Sodik on how he had come to sponsor the bill.
Baleg deputy chairman Achmad Baidowi said there was a possibility the bill would be canceled before deliberations begin.
The United Development Party (PPP) politician added that in preparing the Prolegnas, the body did not scrutinize all of the draft bills proposed by lawmakers and it was possible that each of the initiators of the family resilience bill submitted the bill without approval from their parties. Achmad said the bill would still be considered if it meets the administrative requirements.
"We will see the next meeting at the Baleg. The process will stop if the majority disagrees, or it may continue but we will remove the problematic articles. If a faction wants to withdraw its support, it should talk to the lawmakers
immediately.”
Achmad said there was also the possibility that some articles would be combined with other similar bills, namely the mother and child welfare bill and the national population and family bill.
Mutiara Ika Pratiwi of Perempuan Mahardhika, a human rights organization, said she assumed the family resilience bill was nothing but a legislative counterstrike against the sexual violence bill, deliberations over which had been brought to a halt because of opposition from some Islamic-based parties.
"What I see is the family resilience bill was made to counter the antirape bill. There are several provisions that are being proposed to overcome sexual violence," Mutiara said.
Ratna Batara Munti of the Network of Pro-Women's National Legislation Program stated the same opinion as Mutiara, saying that among the draft's initiators were those from the group that rejected the sexual violence bill.
Ali, the initiator of the bill from PAN, denied the allegations, saying this bill was needed so that "the process of reproduction in the household is sustainable".
He also asserted that the bill should not be seen as “bringing Islamic law” to a regulation.
“No. It’s not to counter [the sexual violence bill] or to derail it. The bill is necessary. It’s no problem if it does not become a law, though,” Ali said.
