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Indonesia’s new criminal code reflects fierce struggle between secular and Islamic parties

The controversial extramarital sex ban and the ban on insulting the president are part of an unhappy compromise to check each other’s power.

Protesters demonstrating against the draft of the new criminal law outside the parliament building in Jakarta on Dec 5, 2022.

PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Johannes Nugroho

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When Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR)

passed a new criminal code on Dec 6,

it was supposed to be a moment of national pride. Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly hailed it as “mission accomplished in decolonising” the legal system.

Instead,

it drew unflattering headlines

as the outside world reacted with astonishment and disbelief, mixed with criticism.

Indonesia’s new criminal code reflects fierce struggle between secular and Islamic parties

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