AMN / WEB DESK
Indonesia’s parliament has passed a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts such freedoms.
Sex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years.
The raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.
Critics see the laws as a “disaster” for human rights, and a potential blow to tourism and investment.
At the House of Representatives’ plenary session where the bill was passed, lawmakers claimed provisions widely deemed draconian had been softened, such as those criminalizing insulting a sitting president and outlawing cohabitation before marriage, as well articles governing the death penalty.
Representing the government at the session was Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who also used a similar argument.
“We have tried our best to accommodate the important issues and different opinions that were debated. However, it is time for us to make a historic decision on the [revised] Criminal Code and leave the colonial penal code we inherited behind,” Yasonna said.
Several groups of mainly young people protested against the legislation outside parliament in Jakarta this week. It is expected the new laws will be challenged in court.
Many businesses had also been opposed to the legislation, saying it discouraged visitors and investment. But lawmakers have celebrated overhauling laws dating back to Dutch colonial rule.
“It is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind,” law minister Yasonna Laoly told parliament.