Indonesia's sex 'morality' laws are just one part of a broader, chilling crackdown on dissent

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Indonesia’s sex ‘morality’ laws are just one part of a broader, chilling crackdown on dissent

Analysis: the moralistic aspects of the new criminal code risk obscuring wider concerns about a stifling of protest and criticism of the state

Helen Sullivan
Wed 7 Dec 2022 05.18 GMT
Last modified on Wed 7 Dec 2022 15.01 GMT

Indonesia’s new criminal code limits the right to protest and participate in the public sphere, threatens the freedom of women and LGBTQ people and represents a trend of vague or “rubber” laws that are open to broad interpretation and selective implementation, experts have warned.

With provisions restoring a ban on insulting the president, state institutions and state ideology, as well as extramarital and premarital sex, the code will come into effect within three years, following Indonesia’s 2024 elections. Insults to a sitting president can lead to up to three years in jail.

The code was passed with support from all political parties in Indonesia’s parliament. Legislators hailed the vote as a decades-long effort to replace Dutch colonial laws that remained a deep part of the country’s judicial system.

While the so-called “morality” laws governing sex outside marriage have worrying implications, academics and experts were most concerned by the provisions governing insults to the president, state institutions and national ideology.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/07/indonesias-sex-morality-laws-are-just-one-part-of-a-broader-chilling-crackdown-on-dissent

[Magoo48]

1. Control freak, religious fanatic, fascists everyfuckingwhere you turn.

They add up to a malignant tumor in the guts of humanity. They clog up the social, psychological, and national pathways to the growing existential threats facing us all.

I will die frustrated wondering why these assholes receive any play at all.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Humans don't seem able to give up their evil side.

[Irish_Dem]

2. I bet they mainly go after women with this law. As per usual.

And LGBT.