Homosexuality must be criminalised in Indonesia ‘to protect country’s values’, says law expert
By Will Stroude
A group of Indonesian academics and activists have encouraged the Constitutional Court of Indonesia to criminalise sexual activity of homosexualiy in the latest hearing of a lawsuit that began earlier this year.
The suit has already had several hearings brought on by 12 activists and academics as they campaign to criminalise the fornication of unmarried men and women, but recently captured international attention when they sought out to criminalise homosexuality.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the group argued that Indonesia was on the verge of a sexual a moral crisis, as well as being at risk of having its core Muslim values overridden due to international human rights claims that embrace LGBT rights.
Family Love Alliance says an existing law that criminalises sex between adults and minors of the same gender, which mandates prison sentences of up to 15 years, should be amended to also apply to sexual acts between adults of the same gender.
Chairman of the National Child Protection Commission, Asrorun Ni’am Sholeh, said the court needed to take quick action to stop a crisis of sexual morality that put the nation’s children at risk.
He calls for a five-year prison sentence to be imposed for homosexual acts, which he warned “tend to be repeated because there is a factor of addiction in it.”
He also raises concerns that the possibility of same-sex marriage could come to Indonesia.
Three out of nine Constitutional Court judges posed questions during the hearing, and their remarks all suggested they agreed with at least portions of the petitioners’ claims.
“If those values are not articulated in the law, would our country one day become a secular state?” asked Judge Patrialis Akbar, who noted that the parts of the law that the petitioners were seeking to tighten were inherited from the time when Indonesia was a Dutch colony.
“This constitution is liberal, yes, because it’s coming from imperialist government,” Akbar said, adding, “Must all laws that are not in according with the morals and religion have to be synchronized with the local values so this court … [can be] an institution illuminated by the light of God?”
The petitioners will have another chance to present their case in another hearing scheduled for Aug. 30. A date for judgment has not yet been set.
Words: Bryan Bernal
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