MOVE TO BAN CASUAL SEX IN INDONESIA

Criminalising such activities a breach of civil rights, say Indonesians

JAKARTA: A legal attempt by a group of conservative academics to criminalise sexual relations outside marriage has sparked concern about a serious breach of civil liberties.

The academics, who claim to be motivated by a desire to protect the country’s morality, are seeking revisions to three articles in the Criminal Code, including Article 284 on adultery, which they say should not be confined to consensual sexual activities by married people with partners who are not their legal spouses.

The move comes amid an apparent shift by the country toward a more moralistic stance, with the government and the Constitutional Court being regarded as supporting a strongly conservative agenda.

Criminalising casual sex could create an oppressive society with morality police investigating people’s private lives, Wahid Foundation executive director Yenny Wahid said on Wednesday.

“Private police forces could emerge from extremist groups, stalking people and using the law to intimidate other people,” she said.

Yenny, the daughter of the nation’s pluralism icon Abdurrahman Wahid, questioned the feasibility of proving someone is having sex outside marriage.

“Who has the right to file a report? If it’s a married couple where a spouse is cheating, then the cheated one could file a report. But what about unmarried couples?”

University of Indonesia criminologist Josias Simon said the public would be enraged if the court ruled in favour of the group.

“It goes against the essence of our country, which is pluralistic,” he said. “Indonesians are diverse. There’s no agreement or complete research on this matter.”

Casual sex could be considered a victimless crime as it was consensual, so putting someone in jail for having consensual sex outside marriage would be unjust, he added.

“While I agree that sexual intercourse outside marriage should be managed, it shouldn’t be banned or criminalised. Although this move was made with good intentions, the impact could make society worse.”

The petitioners, whose main goal is to make same-sex relationships illegal, have been given a chance to present expert witnesses to speak in their favour.

On Monday, they invited Indonesian Council of Islamic Propagation chairman Adian Husaini to address the court. He said the country was facing a tough “morality challenge”.

“This is exacerbated by the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) phenomenon that has become more rampant,” he added.

The Constitutional Court is traditionally known as a “negative legislator”, meaning it can only annul legislation or scrap certain wording from a law. But Chief Justice Arif Hidayat has said the court could change the wording of an article in a law if its ruling inadvertently created a legal vacuum.