On Tuesday, December 5, Indonesian lawmakers passed a broad new penal code that criminalises s£x outside of marriage.
The new rule, which also applies to foreign residents and tourists, prohibits cohabitation before marriage, apostasy, and punishes insulting the president or expressing beliefs contrary to national ideology.
“All have agreed to ratify the (draft changes) into law,” said lawmaker Bambang Wuryanto, who led the parliamentary commission in charge of revising the colonial-era code.
“The old code belongs to Dutch heritage … and is no longer relevant”, he stated.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has seen a rise in religious conservatism in recent years, with a population of 270 million people. Strict Islamic rules are already in place in areas of the country, including the semi-autonomous Aceh province, which prohibits the sale of alcohol and gambling.
In Indonesia, public floggings are common for a variety of transgressions, including homosexuality and adultery.
A previous draught of the law was scheduled to be passed in 2019, but was postponed due to widespread protests, prompting Indonesian President Joko Widodo to intercede. Widodo said at the time in a televised address that he decided to postpone the vote after “carefully examining feedback from diverse parties who feel issues on certain substantial content of the criminal code.”
