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Join on Telegram Rabat – Indonesia, a popular tourist destination known for its yoga retreats, rich biodiversity, and tourist fuelled nightlife has approved legislation today that criminalizes sex outside marriage, as well as cohabitation between partners before marriage.
The law will not take immediate effect and will be implemented within the next three years, converging reports indicated, noting that the new penal code will be applied to foreigners and Indonesian citizens alike.
The radical change sparked protests on Tuesday outside Jarkata’s parliament building. Human rights groups have protested the new law, describing the move as “a setback to freedom in the world’s third largest democracy,” the Guardian reported.
Business groups have also denounced the Indonesian parliament’s decision, with concerns that the legislation will negatively impact the tourism sector.
Legislator of Indonesia’s fifth-largest political party NasDem Taufik Basari has conceded the new law could affect tourism. Basari stated, “As a parliamentarian, I will try to find more limitations for the implementation of these articles.”
Anyone who breaks the new law could be sentenced to up to one year in prison, and those who are found guilty of cohabitation outside of marriage could be sentenced to six months.
Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. Official data estimate approximately 231 million Muslims reside in Indonesia. The Asian country has in recent years seen an increase in laws that align with more conservative Islamic beliefs.
During a recent legal conference, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said it was challenging for a multicultural and multi-ethnic country to make a penal code that “accommodates all interests,” news outlet Reuters reported.
Laoly said that he hoped citizens would understand that legal professionals have done their utmost to “accommodate the public’s aspiration.” The minister added that anyone who feels dissatisfied with the voting outcome can “submit a judicial review to the constitutional court.”
The new amendment to the penal code is one of the few restrictive laws that align with the country’s Muslim roots.
Other laws include banning gambling and alcohol from selected provinces. In addition to tightening legislation, in the semi-autonomous province of Aceh in northwestern Indonesia, public beatings are inflicted on anyone who is found to commit adultery or who identifies as homosexual.
Aceh is the only province where it is permitted to practice strict Sharia law in Indonesia.
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