Indonesia’s Controversial Family Resilience Bill Moves Forward
An Indonesian Parliamentary Session Taking Place (Wikimedia Commons).
Despite garnering widespread criticism for violating personal freedoms and being religiously intolerant, Indonesia’s Family Resilience Bill (Rancangan Undang-Undang Ketahanan Keluarga, or RUU KK) returned to the spotlight after a harmonization meeting took place on September 21. The meeting marks the advancement of the proposed piece of legislation, which has several controversial provisions mandating the role of husbands and wives within a marriage.
The Family Resilience Bill aims to legally protect the traditional definition of family, dictating several marital duties that would apply to all Indonesians. Amongst other things, it requires wives to “manage household affairs” and “fulfill her husband’s rights” as dictated by religious, social, and constitutional norms. Husbands should serve as the primary source of household income while also protecting their family from “sexual deviations” such as homosexuality. The bill further prohibits surrogacy, stating that it could be punishable with 5 to 7 years in prison or a 500 million rupiah fine.
At its announcement, the Family Resilience Bill received widespread condemnation from numerous civil society organizations and activists as a violation of personal affairs. An article within the bill legally obligating married couples to love each other has drawn notable criticism, as has another one mandating people accused of LGBTQ+ relations to undergo rehabilitation.
Ali Taher, a member of the proposal team, claimed that the bill arose out of concern for the increasing rates of premarital sex and drug use by Indonesian teenagers, which allegedly signified the disintegration of family resilience.
“Gaps between rural and urban areas would cause six basic problems; unemployment, poverty, family disorganization, crime, free sex, and drugs,” Taher said. By passing the Family Resilience Bill, Taher believes Indonesians can strengthen national resilience against the “negative impact of globalization” which he stated would cause a shift in Indonesian cultural values. He also made clear that this family bill has no basis in religion nor does it seek to advance any hidden agenda.
The success of the Family Resilience Bill has set back the advancement of liberal movements in Indonesia. The increasing structural power and influence of conservative Islam signals the way by which religious affairs has heavily permeated the political sphere since the jailing of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama for “blasphemy” in 2017. Additionally, proposed revisions made to the Criminal Code in 2019, such as the criminalization of extramarital consensual sex and increase in penalties for insulting Islam, have likewise retrogressed liberalism in Indonesia.
On the flip side, the progressive Anti-Sexual Assault Bill, which proposed to criminalize sexual assault (as of now, Indonesia only recognizes two types of sexual assault), has drawn significant criticism from Muslim conservatives. They claim that the bill indirectly promotes “promiscuity” and “ deviant sexual behaviour” because it only criminalizes rape without explicitly prohibiting consensual sexual relations outside of marriage.
Sexual immorality is a recurring topic of discourse within Indonesian politics, where religion makes up an essential part of one’s identity. Under Indonesian law, all national identity cards must include an individual’s religious belief, and interreligious marriage remains illegal. Despite growing criticism of the Family Resilience Bill, the support it has garnered cannot simply be ignored.
Claiming that Indonesia has lost its famed moderate reputation may be premature, but the rising political prominence of hardline Islamic leaders could definitely shape future Indonesian ideologies on religion as it has already begun to do.