MANILA The Indonesian parliament approved a new criminal law on Tuesday, which has raised concerns around the world.
The law prohibits, among other things, cohabitation and sex outside of marriage. The former can result in half a year in prison, the latter up to a year.
The ban also applies to foreigners in Indonesia. Among other things, Indonesia is home to the popular island of Bali, where many foreigners come to vacation and have fun.
– I don’t think Bali will have any problems in the future. The area is so liberal and tolerant. But I’m still afraid of how this will affect tourism and investments, says the Indonesian researcher Nicky Fahrizal Yelle in a video interview.
He studies politics and social changes at the Indonesian Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a research institute in the country’s capital, Jakarta.
Many business leaders and the US ambassador to Indonesia have also expressed concern that the tougher criminal law could damage Indonesia’s image as a tourist and investment destination.
You can have sex as long as your family doesn’t object
Indonesian criminal law expert Leopold Sudaryono is not very concerned about the law’s effect on foreigners.
He heads the Diponegoro Center on Criminal Law and was involved in assisting in the drafting of the disputed legal text.
– Foreigners can have sex with whoever they want, as long as the sex partner does not have a spouse, parents or children who would like to report the matter to the police, Sudaryono says in a phone interview from Jakarta.
He refers to the fact that sex, cohabitation and adultery can only be reported by a person’s own spouse, parents or child. The purpose of the law is to protect minor children and family honor, Fahrizal and Sudaryono describe.
Even so far, cheating has been a crime in Indonesia, but only a spouse has been able to file a criminal complaint, and this has been rare. Now the group was expanded to include the person’s parents and children.
Islamic groups would have liked anyone to be able to report an adulterous relationship.
Legal expert Sudaryono admits that problems could arise if the foreigner’s sex partner was local and his parents wanted to report the relationship to the police.
Researcher Nicky Fahrizal points out that in Bali, which lives on tourism, the families and the police are so open-minded that he doesn’t think there are any criminal cases.
– But the situation may be different in other parts of the country, he says.
The legal text is also written so unclearly that it leaves a lot of discretion to the police, Fahrizal says. For example, both straight and gay couples can be punished for indecency, but no one knows what that means in practice.
Young people don’t want to get married anymore
Indonesia is a giant island nation located in Southeast Asia and the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. It has had a mostly moderate reputation, but the country has been sliding in an increasingly conservative direction in recent years.
Indonesia is used to balancing between traditional and democratic values. Tensions between religious and non-religious groups are an eternal dispute in the country.
In some parts of the country, such as Aceh, strict Islamic laws are in place, while in Jakarta and other big cities, young people marry less and less, for example.
The opponents of the new criminal law are above all young people, says Nicky Fahrizal. According to him, the majority of Indonesians support the new law.
The press and human rights organizations are also concerned about the narrowing of freedom of speech, expression of opinion and other freedoms.
Fahrizal believes that opponents will continue with some kind of protests or take the law to the Constitutional Court for review.
President Either Widodo has yet to sign the bill and is expected to do so. The law is predicted to enter into force in two to three years.
Why haven’t we seen big demonstrations?
The reform of the Criminal Code has been underway for decades. The old laws are a mixture of colonial Dutch laws, modern laws, Islamic sharia laws, Christian values and different customs, Leopold Sudaryono says.
Indonesia gained independence from the Netherlands in the 1940s.
Since then, many presidents have tried to reform the criminal code, but it has always fallen into the struggle of secular and religious groups. Many Indonesian legislators have been happy this week that the “colonial” law has finally been buried.
When President Widodo last tried to pass the law in 2019, he had to back down because it sparked large protests.
This time there have been significantly fewer protests.
Why so?
According to Fahrizal and Sudaryono, the Indonesian opposition is now much weaker. Some of the parties that opposed the law three years ago are in the government themselves.
This is also evidenced by the fact that the Indonesian parliament approved the law unanimously.
Some relaxations have been made to the law compared to the 2019 version, and several groups have been consulted in its preparation. Therefore, even more people are ready to accept the law, even though it is not perfect, says Sudaryono.
Criticism has focused on 18 of the law’s 600 articles, which, in addition to the ban on illicit sex and cohabitation, include contempt of the president and blasphemy.
The law is also progressive in many ways, criminal law expert Sudaryono says. According to him, it brings Indonesia’s sentencing practices into modern times, when more community service, suspended sentences and fines are introduced.
The absoluteness of the death sentence is also being relaxed, but it is still in use, Fahrizal points out.