Indonesia’s parliament has overhauled the country’s criminal code to outlaw sex outside marriage and curtail free speech, in a dramatic setback to freedoms in the world’s third-largest democracy.
Passed with support from all political parties, the draconian legislation has shocked not only rights activists but also the country’s booming tourism sector, which relies on a stream of visitors to its tropical islands.
Newspapers in Australia have labelled the legislation the “Bali bonk ban” as the law will apply to Indonesians and visiting foreigners. More than 1 million Australians visit Indonesia each year, with many heading to Bali for its yoga retreats, surfing and all-night beach parties.
Maulana Yusran, the deputy chief of Indonesia’s tourism industry board, said the code was “totally counterproductive” and introduced just as the country was trying to recover from the pandemic. “We deeply regret the government have closed their eyes,” he said.
The US ambassador to Indonesia, Sung Kim, warned the law could dampen international business interest. “Criminalising the personal decisions of individuals would loom large within the decision matrix of many companies determining whether to invest in Indonesia,” he said.
Rights groups have long protested against the code, which also outlaws unsanctioned public demonstrations and religious blasphemy.
“What we’re witnessing is a significant blow to Indonesia’s hard-won progress in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms over more than two decades,” said Usman Hamid, Amnesty International’s Indonesia executive director, who described the criminal code as “appalling”.
“Outlawing sex outside marriage is a violation to the right to privacy protected under international law,” Hamid said. “Consensual sexual relationships should not be treated as a criminal offence or a violation of ‘morality’.”
Rights groups say the move underscores a growing shift towards fundamentalism in a majority-Muslim country long hailed for its religious tolerance, with secularism enshrined in its constitution.
However, 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. Yasonna Laoly, the minister of law and human rights, told parliament: “We have tried our best to accommodate the important issues and different opinions which were debated. However, it is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind.”
Supporters of the new laws say that while sex outside marriage will be punishable by a year in jail and cohabitation by six months, charges can be based only on police reports lodged by a spouse, parents or children.
But Taufik Basari, a legislator of the NasDem party, said that if a tourist visiting Bali, for instance, had consensual sex with an Indonesian national, and it was reported to police by the Indonesian’s parent or child, that tourist could be arrested.
“I know it will impact tourism, which is why we should explain to the public that reports to police should be limited to what the family feels is really important,” he said. “As a parliamentarian, I will try to find more limitations for the implementation of these articles.”
Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the code could be selectively enforced because of its impracticality, citing “millions” of cohabiting unmarried couples in Indonesia.
There are fears the rules could have a severe impact on LGBTQ+ communities in Indonesia, where gay marriage is not acknowledged.
A previous draft of the code was poised to be passed in 2019 but the process was delayed after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in nationwide protests.
But rallies on Tuesday were more muted, with only about a dozen protesters gathering and holding banners in downtown Jakarta.
Citra Referandum, the director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, joined a small protest outside the parliament building in Jakarta on Tuesday. She said she expected “people’s anger will mount”.
“Indonesian democracy is dead,” she said. “This is reflected in a process that is not transparent or participatory and the anti-democratic substance of the criminal code.”
Under the new code, the promotion of contraception is illegal. It also maintains abortion is a crime but adds exceptions for women with life-threatening medical conditions and for rape, provided that the foetus is less than 12 weeks old, in line with what is already regulated.
It restores a ban on insulting a sitting president and vice-president, state institutions and national ideology – an old law that Indonesia’s top court annulled in 2006. Insults to a sitting president must be reported by the president and can lead to up to three years in jail.
Sasmito Madrim, the chair of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, said the code curbed the “basic work” of reporting. He highlighted 17 “problematic articles” that criminalised “spreading communism”, defamation of the dead, and criticism of public leaders, among other areas.
He added: “The new code has the potential to send journalists to prison.”
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report