Indonesia's Parliament today approved legislative amendments that ban sex before marriage and make other important changes to the country's Penal Code.
The vice president of Parliament, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said he was in favor of the text, which obtained the majority of votes in the plenary and which is criticized by its detractors as a setback for freedoms in the Muslim majority country .
“We have done our best to take into account the important issues and the different opinions that have been discussed. However, it is time for us to take a historic decision to amend the Penal Code and leave behind the colonial Penal Code that we inherited,” Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly said.
The most controversial rules concern precisely the criminalization of extramarital sexual relations and the cohabitation of unmarried couples. Rules that will inevitably have a strong impact on the LGBT community, given that same-sex marriage is not allowed in Indonesia .
Premarital and extramarital sexual acts, explained project committee spokesman Albert Aries, can only be reported by the spouse, parents or children.
Indonesia's current Penal Code dates back to Dutch colonial times and its revision has been the subject of debate for decades. But according to rights groups, the new amendments underscore a growing slide towards fundamentalism in a country long hailed for its religious tolerance.
(Unioneonline/L)
