In the Eastern world, including Southeast Asia, sex outside of marriage bound or premarital sex is considered a disrespect to the society’s moral values. Even though most Southeast Asian countries are generally modernized and most of them are not based on religious law, government officials still intervene to enforce unwritten social values. In this case, officials such as policemen would search homes, boarding houses, hotels and motels to caught unmarried couples in the act of sexual intercourse. Once the police caught them, they would usually be questioned and jailed for a few days. However, Some views disagree with such enforcement for it violates individual privacy.
Around December 2016, members of the Indonesian House of Representatives received a request of judicial review from Aliansi Cinta Keluarga Indonesia (AILA) and other organisations such as Persistri regarding a provision of adultery. Previously, Indonesian criminal code (Article 284, 285 and 292) has already define adultery as far as sex between a third party with a married man or woman. Offenders of adultery will be punished up to 5 years in prison.
The petitioners wished to extend the definition so it would regulate all kind of adultery, including sex between unmarried couple. Political parties which make up over 50% of the House agreed to it with a notion that law is supposed to reflect moral values. They also said that enforcing the law will prevent public judgement of violent actions, such as beating them or parading the couples in nudity (although displaying nudity in public on purpose already breached a provision of pornography). Meanwhile, the rest of the political parties (about 49%) disagreed, saying that the government should not intervene too far in social norms.
Originally, sexual activities can be criminalized when there is a victim (no consent from one party) or is done with or by or to underaged children. It can also be criminalized if it’s part of prositution and/or include human trafficking. But sexual activities between partners which are based on both consent should not be criminalized as there is no victim.
If we’re referring to human rights, an individual has a right over his/her body and sexuality. This means that no one should have the authority to deprive another’s bodily or sexual expression but himself/herself. The depriving could vary in form; rape, judgement over one’s sexual behavior or preference, child marriage, etc. Yet, when it comes to applying human rights, there’s a doctrine of margin of appreciation in which practical differences in domestic laws should be taken into account. In other words, the application of human rights (referring to the international human rights convention) cannot be absolute.
On the contrary, most religions including Islam (as it is the predominant religion in Indonesia, who also has the highest Muslim population in the world) believes that premarital sex or voluntary sexual intercourse is wrong and there should be a strict punishment for it. A formal punishment for this act is applied mostly in countries that use a certain religion as the primary reference to its regulation. However, Indonesia is a state law, apart from Aceh who applied the Sharia law for its regional regulation.
The Indonesian Constitutional Court rejected the request to include voluntary sexual intercourse between unmarried couple as a legal definition of adultery in Indonesia as per December 2017. However, some lawmakers still strive to criminalize sex between unmarried couples by including the notion in the criminal code draft. Hereinafter, the discussion should revolve around the question of to what extent does religious beliefs determine the country’s law? Whichever way, a nation of such vast diversity should not forsaken their strong tradition of tolerance and unity to prevail over misguided purposes (such as political opportunities) in their decision-making process.