NU urges govt to crack down on those guilty of adultery

Surabaya, NU Online
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization urged the government authorities to crack down on any porn act, especially involving young people that are prone to commit adultery because of, among other things, media influences.<>


Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of the East Java's NU Regional Board, KH Abdurrahman Navis made the remarks for seeing the increasingly rampant porn acts. 

"The porn acts have become more common in the community,  through the spectacle of live music or easy access to get the negative media," he told NU Online here over the weekend.

Kiai Navis called on the government to make an anti-pornography law effective because it could protect women and children against exploitation and to curb increasing immortality in the Indonesian society.

The law, he said, would ban images, gestures or talk deemed to be pornographic, including music performances littered fully with adultery lyrics.

He greatly appreciated the government for proposing changes to Indonesia's Criminal Code in which people guilty of adultery, living together outside of wedlock or engaged in black magic could be jailed for years and receive hefty fines. 

Harsher sentences would promote greater "morality" in public life and punish behaviour deemed "un-Islamic". Critics counter that such changes are simply another example of the state interfering in the private life of people and that they could lead to unsubstantiated legal proceedings.

The revised 500-page document is intended to modernise the 1918 Criminal Code, which was last updated in 1958. Currently, the Code lacks provisions against witchcraft or black magic but under its revised version, those found guilty of using black magic would face up to five years in jail or up to 300 million rupiah (US$ 30,000) in fines. Out of respect for tribal traditions and customs, "white", i.e. good magic would remain legal. 

The revised Criminal Code is also set to crack down on un-Islamic sexual mores, first and foremost adultery but also living together out of wedlock.

At present, common law relationships are not illegal in Indonesia, but once changes are adopted, couples could get a maximum sentence of one year in prison.

Adultery is already illegal. However, under the new rules, couples could get up to five years behind bars against the current nine months.

Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq