Jakarta – After the Home Ministry recently urged regions to revise their alcohol bylaws, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has turned the tables and requested that the minister evaluate the presidential decree on alcohol.

"The Home Minister should not evaluate the bylaws, it is the presidential decree that needs to be evaluated," MUI coordinator Ma'aruf Amin said on Wednesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Bylaws, which stipulate that alcoholic drinks can be sold only at licensed three to five-star hotels, discotheques, karaoke halls and nightclubs, needed to be revised, as they were contrary to a 2007 presidential decree on the distribution of liquor, based on alcoholic content.

The decree says that drinks with less than 5 percent alcoholic content can be distributed without a license.

Ma'aruf said that the MUI was in favor of the bylaws as they were more beneficial for society and would have a better impact on the public. The MUI, he added, regretted the minister's move which it perceived as being overly authoritative, despite the minister saying that he was merely calling for clarification of the bylaws and not to have them revoked.

The minister's call also sparked demonstrations last week from various Islamic organizations, including the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), who protested in front of the ministry and damaged its premises. (awd)