Guwahati: The Indonesian parliament unanimously approved a new penal code on Tuesday that makes extramarital sex illegal.
The head of the parliamentary commission, legislator Bambang Wuryanto was quoted by national media as saying, “All have agreed to ratify the (proposed revisions) into law.” “The old code is of Dutch origin and is no longer applicable.”
According to reports, the new law imposes penalties for disrespecting the president or expressing opinions at odds with the dominant ideology.
The minister of law and human rights Yasonna Laoly said during a press conference that he hoped Indonesians realised that parliamentarians had done everything in their power to satisfy “popular aspiration.”
Recently stated that creating a criminal law that “accommodates all interests” was difficult for a multicultural and multiethnic nation.
He also extended an invitation to aggrieved parties to file a legal challenge with the constitutional court.
Human rights organisations had already claimed that the new law will “disproportionately damage women” and severely restrict freedoms and human rights in the largest Muslim-majority country in the world.
“What we’re witnessing is a huge setback to Indonesia’s hard-won progress in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms after the 1998 revolution. This criminal code should have never been passed in the first place,” said , Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia Usman Hamid.
The laws are “a setback for already was declining religious freedom in Indonesia,” according to Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono, who also cautioned that “non-believers could be prosecuted and jailed.”
He was quoted by media as saying, “The danger of oppressive laws is not that they’ll be widely applied, it’s that they provide avenue for selective enforcement.”