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Indonesia considering changing criminal code toward sharia
 [ATimes] Indonesian society would undergo a dramatic and regressive transformation if Parliament goes ahead with proposed amendments to the country’s colonial-era Criminal Code which, among other things, will ban same-sex relations, pre-marital sex, cohabitation among unmarried couples, sex education and even condom distribution.With consideration of the revised code delayed until the next session of Parliament in April, senior government officials seem confident the legislation will eventually be kicked down the road — as it has been since the first draft amendment was introduced in 1984. Still, by design or not, the latest version has risen to the top of the legislative agenda at the start of the 2018-2019 election season when political parties are already jostling to attract votes in a country with an 88% Muslim majority and a now seriously tarnished reputation for tolerance. Most of the 10 political parties have been unwilling to take a public position on the bill, leaving confusion to reign over whether lawmakers making up the parliamentary drafting committee truly reflect the sentiments of their party leaders. “There has been a fundamental shift to conservatism,” says former attorney-general Marzuki Darusman, who headed the first Indonesian Commission on Human Rights. “There are machinations behind this to appease people allying themselves with conservative elements.” Erasmus Napitupulu, head of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, is critical of the way the revision to the century-old code perpetuates colonialism, fails to incorporate human rights and protection for vulnerable groups, and continues to embrace a punitive approach to law enforcement. On a recent visit to Jakarta, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra-ad al Hussein, a Jordanian Muslim, urged Indonesians to “move forwards not backwards” on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law. “The hateful rhetoric against this (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender – LGBT) community that is being cultivated for seemingly cynical political reasons will only deepen their suffering and create unnecessary divisions,” he said, calling the proposed legal changes a setback in the struggle against spreading hard-line Islamization. But what surprises many observers is the fact that there has been virtually no public discussion on what impact the proposed changes would have on tourism, one of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners, as well as the broad economy. Posted by: 3dc 2018-03-04 |
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