RKUHP Will Be Ratified By The DPR, PKS Asks For Articles Of Deleting The President And Malrang LGBT

Illustration of the DPR plenary meeting at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta. (Nailin I S-VOI)

JAKARTA - The DPR held a plenary meeting related to Level II talks or Decree on the Bill on the Criminal Code (KUHP) today, Tuesday, December 6. This decision was agreed upon after Commission III of the DPR and the government agreed to bring the RKUHP to the plenary session to be ratified. The entire faction agreed to this, but the PKS faction provided a firm note in the approval of the new Criminal Code Bill. Namely, first, removing or revoking the article on insulting the President/vice president, government, and state institutions. Second, demanding an affirmation of the prohibition on LGBT behavior.

"The PKS faction of the DPR has arrested broad public aspirations for these two things, thus expressly requiring that both of them be accommodated before the KUHP Bill is later ratified in the DPR Plenary Session," said Chairman of the PKS faction Jazuli Juwaini, to reporters, Tuesday, December 6.

Jazuli emphasized that the PKS faction was consistent from the start asking for articles of insulting the President/Vice President, government, and state institutions to be revoked. Even since the beginning of the discussion on 5-10 years ago. "Because this article has the potential to become a rubber article and threaten democracy. This article can be misused by the authorities to suppress public criticism," said Jazuli.

In fact, continued Jazuli, the spirit of revising the RKUHP was to reform colonial products. Meanwhile, the article on insulting the President/Vice President, the government and state institutions has its history of protecting colonial authorities. "This is ironic and can setback democracy, which we have worked so hard to fight for through reforms in 1998," explained Jazuli.

"Meanwhile, regarding the affirmation of LGBT's prohibition and criminal behavior, the PKS faction sees this as a very emergency to see the trend of the development of this moral deviation in social life. There are even pressures and systematic campaigns that force the legality of this deviant behavior," he added.

The legislator for the Banten electoral district, said that the basis of the Pancasila state and the 1945 Constitution clearly did not provide space and even prohibited LGBT behavior. This is because, said Jazuli, this is no longer a matter of freedom and human rights but a deviation. According to him, freedom in Indonesia is limited by law based on the nation's noble religious and cultural norms so that there is no freedom without limits or free values such as LGBT.

"LGBT behavior and all kinds of campaigns are clearly violations of civilized divine and humanitarian values and damage the character of the nation. So we should not hesitate or half-heartedly emphasize the LGBT ban in the Criminal Code Bill," said Jazuli.

Jazuli added that the PKs faction appreciates the immoral chapter in the Criminal Code Bill which is more advanced with the expansion of articles on adultery and cohabitation (kumplementation of kebo), although there are a number of reinforcement notes. In addition, the Criminal Code Bill also regulates prohibitions for everyone committing obscene acts whether committed against other people of different or the same sex, which can be a criminal entrance for LGBT behavior. It's just that, said Jazuli, the article needs to be more firm in mentioning the LGBT ban, including its behavior and all forms of campaigns in public spaces.

"The PKS faction hopes that the factions in the DPR and the Government will listen to the public's aspirations on the two issues above solely to maintain democracy and to save the identity of the character of a Godly and civilized nation based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution," he said.