Indonesian Lawmakers Seek Gay Sex Ban
The
Advocate, October 1, 2003
Gay sex will soon become a crime in Indonesia if the
justice ministry has its way, a ministry spokesman told Agence France-Presse.
The ministry is drafting an amendment to the country’s criminal code to
include acts not currently categorized as crimes but considered morally
unacceptable, including gay sex, cohabitation, oral sex, extramarital and
nonmarital sex, and sorcery aimed at hurting other people, spokesman Sukartono
Supangat said. “It’s still in its early stage,” he added. “We’re
still collecting input from various parties and experts.” In addition to
Dutch colonial law, the proposed amended criminal code will also adopt Islamic
law, international conventions, and tribal laws, Supangat said. The draft,
which is still being debated, proposes that a couple found guilty of
cohabitation receive punishment of up to two years in jail. A man who
impregnates a woman but refuses to marry her could spend a maximum five years
in prison. Sodomy and oral sex would be punishable by three to 12 years in
jail, and gay sex would be punishable by one to seven years. A “witch
doctor” or his client found guilty of using black magic to hurt other people
could spend up to five years in jail. Ministry experts are still debating ways
to obtain evidence of such acts.
Indonesian lawyers on Tuesday criticized the
government’s plan. Gayus Lumbuun, chairman of the Indonesian Bar
Association, was quoted by Kompas newspaper as saying the state should not
interfere in citizens’ sexual behavior. “I need to make it clear that all
criminal offenses are ethical offenses, but not all ethical and moral offenses
are crimes,” Lumbuun said. Suhardi Somomoeljon, secretary-general of the
Indonesian Lawyers Association, warned that some people could take the law
into their own hands if the plan were adopted: “If cohabitation becomes a
crime, it will be a pretext for people who have a holier-than-thou attitude to
raid other people. This is dangerous.”
The ministry’s move is apparently in response to
demands by some Muslim groups and political parties for the introduction of
Islamic law. The current criminal code is a collection of laws mostly adopted
from the Dutch colonial era. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim
country. But Islam is not the state religion, and the country in general
practices a tolerant version of the faith.
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