Sex outside marriage banned totally in Indonesia

The law was passed despite worries that the law might scare away tourists from its shores and harm investments.

The country’s law makers approved a new criminal code which will apply to Indonesians and foreigners alike and also prohibit cohabitation between unmarried couples.

In addition to this law, lawmakers have also banned insulting the president or state institutions, spreading views counter to the state ideology, and staging protests without notification.

According to Reuters, the laws were passed with support from all political parties.

However, this law is not going to come into effect for the next three years to allow implementation regulations to be drafted.

At the moment. Indonesia bans adultery but not pre-marital sex.

However, some high-ranking Indonesian officials are not happy with this new law.

According to Maulana Yusran, the deputy chief of Indonesia’s tourism board, this new law is totally counter-productive at a time the economy and tourism were starting to recover from the pandemic.

“We deeply regret the government have closed their eyes. We have already expressed our concern to the ministry of tourism about how harmful this law is,” he said.

Worse still, US Ambassador to Indonesia Sung Kim said the news could result in less foreign investment, tourism and travel to the country.

Besides high-ranking officials who report these new laws to be an infringement on democracy and human rights, newspapers in Indonesia are decrying the new law.

Indonesia Daily Newspaper, Koran Tempo says that the code has ‘authoritarian tones’, while the Jakarta post said it had ‘grave concerns’ about how this new law is to be applied.

Indonesia’s Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told Parliament that it is not easy for a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country to make a criminal code that can accommodate all interests.