RIGHTS-INDONESIA: Protests Rise Against Draft Anti-pornography Bill

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Richel Dursin

JAKARTA, Jul 3 2005 (IPS) - A planned anti-pornography bill is drawing protests from activists who fear that the legislation could end up infringing on human rights in this largely Muslim country of 216 million people.

“We dislike the anti-pornography bill because it is repressive,” said Ratna Batara Munti, co-ordinator of the Network for National Legislation on Women, which consists of 32 non-governmental organizations (NGOs)in the country.

Munti and other activists in the country have urged members of the House of Representatives to reject the ‘problematic’ bill listed among 55 legislations to be deliberated upon this year following complaints by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that pornography in the country had reached intolerable levels.

Yudhoyono, who once objected to bare navels being shown on television, sees pornography as destroying the morals of the nation and has already ordered the State Ministry for Women’s Empowerment and State Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to eradicate it.

The draft regulation prohibits lip-locking in public and offenders face a maximum five-year jail sentence and a fine of US 5,208 dollars to 26,040 dollars. Displaying breasts in public could invite a five-year prison term and exposing buttocks a six-year term, if the bill is passed as drafted.

“There must be some restrictions on such acts because it is against our traditions of decency,” said Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi, head of a parliamentary committee that came up with the bill.

Munti suspected in the bill a step towards imposition of ‘syariah’ or Islamic laws in Indonesia. Fundamentalist political groups, such as the United Development Party of former Vice President Hamzah Haz and the Crescent Star Party, strongly advocate implementation of syariah in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation.

On the other hand, the liberal Islamic scholars like Husein Muhammad, argue that the bill meddles into private matters. “We should dump this draft law on anti-pornography. It is dangerous,” Muhammad said.

Supporting the bill, authorities have blamed a rise in crimes committed by youngsters, including rape, on the proliferation of pornographic video compact discs and other obscene material.

Authorities also link the proliferation of pornographic material and what they see as a new permissiveness among youth to greater freedom of expression won in the days following the downfall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in May 1998.

Several months ago, a group of elementary school students were found masturbating together after watching a pornographic video. Another instance cited is that of a 15-year-old student raping a three-year-old girl after viewing a pornographic film.

Curbing pornography can be problematic because it is a money-spinner. “The pornography business is very lucrative in Indonesia,” said media expert Ade Armando pointing out that the country already has a reputation for being a “haven of pornography”.

Pornographic video cassette disks (VCDs) are cheap and readily available in the remote provinces and at prices as low as 3,000 rupiah (US 31 cents), for a pirated disk.

Yet, the draft anti-pornography bill has drawn criticism for the fact that it does not regulate the distribution and sale of pornographic VCDs in the country nor does it limit access to pornographic internet sites and other media while penalizing what is condonable in many Asian countries.

“A mother breastfeeding her child or anybody defecating in public could be considered as criminals under the anti-pornography bill and this is ridiculous,”

Valentina Sagala, executive director of the non-governmental Women’s Institute, told IPS.

It is common to see mothers breastfeeding their children in public in Indonesia,or people bathing in rivers.

“The draft law is against poor people, especially women and children,” Sagala said, adding that it seeks to criminalise women and children, who are generally the targets of pornography.

Under the bill, children are classified as such if they are below 12 years old rather than 18 years old as defined by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Instead of treating women and children as victims, the bill considers them as criminals,” Sagala said.

Abdul Moqsith Ghazali, research coordinator of the Liberal Islam Network, accused proponents of the anti-pornography bill in the legislature of hypocrisy and “pretending to be clean”.

“I doubt if advocates of this bill do not have pornographic VCDs in their homes,” he said adding that some prominent Islamic leaders backing the bill “had fun” viewing nude shows on a visit to the Netherlands.

The National Legislation Network on Women has complained that civil society organisations in the country were not involved in the drafting of the bill and wants legislators to conduct more discussions with them before deliberating on it.

“The bill doesn’t have a clear definition of pornography and yet it introduces terms like pornocation and we don’t even know its meaning,” Sagala complained.

The lack of a clear definition on pornography and pornocation could invite police intrusion ‘’to determine what is morally acceptable,’’ noted rights activist Smita Notosusanto observed.

Notosusanto stressed that pornography should not be seen as a morality issue, but as having a bearing on the rights of women and children. “Pornography is related to violence against women and children,” she said.

Sagala deplored the fact that the government in this Muslim-dominated country regarded anything to do with morality and religion as priority while ‘’anything associated with women’s or children’s rights is not a priority,’’

Juniwati Masjchun Sofwan, chairperson of the Community Alliance on Anti-Pornography and Anti-pornocation, called for a crackdown on the sale and distribution of pornographic materials and enforcement of existing laws first.

“Indonesia is good at enacting laws, but is very weak in implementing them because of a corrupt system,” she said. (END/2005)