In a significant blow to liberties in the third-largest democracy in the world, Indonesia’s parliament rewrote the country’s criminal code to make sex outside of marriage illegal and restrict free speech.
The punitive legislation, which was supported by both political parties when it was passed, startled not just human rights advocates but also the nation’s expanding tourism industry, which depends on a steady stream of travelers to its beautiful islands. Australian newspapers have dubbed the regulation the “Bali bonk ban” because it will affect both Indonesians and international tourists who are just visiting. Each year, more than a million Australians go to Indonesia, many of whom go to Bali for its yoga retreats, surfing, and late-night beach parties.
The code was “absolutely unproductive,” according to Maulana Yusran, the deputy head of Indonesia’s tourism industry board, and it was implemented as the nation struggled to recover from the pandemic. He remarked, “We lament the government’s blindness. Sung Kim, the US ambassador to Indonesia, issued a warning that the measure would deter foreign investment. When numerous businesses are deciding whether to invest in Indonesia, “criminalizing the personal decisions of individuals will loom large within the decision matrix,” he said. Rights organizations have long railed about the code, which forbids religious defamation as well as unauthorized public gatherings.
Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International’s Indonesia chapter, called the criminal code “appalling” and said what was happening was “a huge setback to Indonesia’s hard-won accomplishments in preserving human rights and fundamental freedoms over more than two decades.” The prohibition of extramarital sex, according to Hamid, “violates the right to privacy established by international law.” Consensual partnerships shouldn’t be viewed as a crime or a breach of “morality.” Rights organizations claim the action highlights an increasing turn towards fundamentalism in a country with a majority of Muslims that has long been praised for its religious tolerance and a constitution that upholds secularism.
Legislators praised the vote as the culmination of a decades-long struggle to replace Dutch colonial rules, which were still deeply ingrained in the nation’s judicial system. The minister of law and human rights, Yasonna Laoly, testified in front of the legislature that “we have done our utmost to accommodate the significant concerns and diverse perspectives which were contested. To abandon the colonial criminal law we inherited, it is time for us to make a historical choice about the penal code change. The new regulations’ proponents note that while having sex outside of marriage will result in a year in prison and cohabitation in a six-month sentence, accusations can only be made based on police reports made by a spouse, parents, or kid.
However, Taufik Basari, a legislator for the NasDem party, claimed that a tourist in Bali, for instance, could be prosecuted if they had consensual sex with an Indonesian native and the incident was reported to police by the Indonesian’s parent or child. The promotion of contraception is prohibited by the new code. In keeping with existing regulations, it also maintains that abortion is illegal but provides exceptions for rape and women with life-threatening medical issues if the fetus is less than 12 weeks old. The rule, according to Sasmito Madrim, the chair of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, limited reporting’s “fundamental work.” He singled out 17 “problematic articles” that, among other things, made “spreading communism,” “defaming the dead,” and “critiquing public officials” illegal.
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