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Sex, schizophrenia and the historical irony of Indonesia’s criminal code
Politicians, even in secular parties such as Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), use religion and “moral” issues to obtain political support.
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Activists take part in a protest after the House of Representatives approved a new penal code that will ban sex outside marriage, cohabitation between unmarried couples, insulting the president and expressing views counter to the national ideology, outside the House buildings in Jakarta, Dec. 6, 2022.
(Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
Here we go again, the state groping into the private parts, er, I mean lives, of their citizens and even visitors.
The new Criminal Code (KUHP), passed on Dec. 6, bans sex outside of marriage, whether adultery or cohabitation. Many fear this ban will affect tourism and foreign investment, reproductive health rights, not to mention an invasion of the right to privacy of Indonesian citizens.
But, the new law is what Veronica Koman deems “more sinister than a Bali bonk ban”, and is putting “the freedom of the people on the line”.
“With just 18 out of 575 [lawmakers] physically attending the plenary session, Indonesia passed the problematic revised Criminal Code this week. It’s a death knell to democracy in Indonesia” (Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 9).
Koman is an Indonesian lawyer and human rights activist on Papua, living in exile in Australia since 2019 after being named a suspect under the draconian Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law for alleged “incitement” and for “spreading hoaxes”. Passed on April 21, 2008, Indonesia’s first cyber law, it is “a weapon used by the powerful to silence criticism, and a major threat to democratic freedoms”.
Koman’s prediction about the fate of democracy in Indonesia is not unfounded, having its origins way back at the onset of the Reform Era in 1998. Decentralization gave power to the regions who enacted regional ordinances (Perda) by the hundreds, flavored with more than a pizzico of sharia.
The damaging, possibly devastating, effect of the new Criminal Code on an already tottering Indonesian democracy is certainly not lost on civil society groups, the media and the public at large. They have been up in arms over it, fueled by dismay and rage, at the betrayal, the lack of transparency, manipulation and twisted truths (read: lies), as well as the habit of springing laws that have not been properly deliberated with the public.
