Indonesia’s parliament on Tuesday (December 6th) approved legislative amendments banning sex outside marriage and making other significant changes to the country’s penal code. The Vice-President of Parliament, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said he approved this text which received the majority of votes in the plenary session.
“We have done our best to take into account the important issues and the different opinions that have been discussed. However, it is time for us to make a historic decision on penal code amendment, and leave behind the colonial penal code we inherited.”, declared, before the Parliament, the Minister of Justice, Yasonna Laoly. Indonesia’s current penal code dates back to Dutch colonial times, and its revision has been under debate for decades.
Among the most controversial articles of the newly adopted code are the criminalization of extra-marital sexual relations, as well as the cohabitation of unmarried couples. These rules could also, according to human rights organizations, have a major impact on the LGBTQ+ community in Indonesia, where same-sex marriage is not allowed.
“We are going backwards”
Project committee spokesman Albert Aries defended the amendments ahead of the vote, saying the law will protect the institution of marriage. He added that pre-marital and extra-marital sexual acts can only be reported by the spouse, parents or children, which de facto limits the scope of the text. But critics of the new law have denounced it as establishing an attack on freedom of morals.
The project has sparked outrage from human rights groups, who denounce an attack on civil liberties and a shift towards fundamentalism in the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. Indonesia has long been hailed for its religious tolerance, with secularism enshrined in its constitution.
“We are backing down… Repressive laws should have been abolished. But the bill shows that the arguments of foreign scholars are true, that our democracy is unquestionably in decline.Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia, told Agence France-Presse.