Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The proposed sexy-outfit ban might be a tactic from the House of Representatives' secretariat general to force a new plan: a uniform project.

Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) investigation division coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi said the House of Representatives' Household Affairs Committee (BURT) was only targeting lawmakers' assistants and civil servants in the building with the ban.

"The miniskirt ban will affect assistants of lawmakers. I'm suspicious the [ban] is just a trick to allocate a state budget revision for new uniforms for civil servants, expert staff and personal assistants in the House secretariat general," Uchok said.

If that is true, he added, the new regulation would be the House's ticket to feast on the state budget for something that is not important.

Uchok called the ban discriminative because Indonesia was a multicultural country. Lawmakers should understand that the parliament building is the people's building and that any citizen had the right to go there in outfits that suit their taste, he said.

The miniskirt ban also violates women's rights and is disrespectful to the country's culture, he added.

"Take Papuans, for example," Uchok said. "They always wear koteka [penis gourds]. How can you ban Papuans wearing koteka from entering the DPR? It seems to me that the DPR leaders have dirty minds and they need to be straightened out"

The House of Representatives' unit in charge of creating the regulation is struggling to set the definition of "proper clothing." "It just has to be proper according to general standards," said Jaka Dwi Winarko, the spokesman for the House secretariat general.

Yogyakarta's Queen Hemas also questioned the plan in a visit to the House on Wednesday. "I am surprised that with all their work [lawmakers] have the time to regulate the size of people's skirts," she said.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari highlighted countries like Saudi Arabia, where cases of rape, particularly against Indonesian maids, are rampant despite strict clothing regulations. Conversely, in Scandinavian countries, where clothing is not regulated, there are few such incidents. "The real problem is with men. Don't treat women like sexual objects," she said.

[Additional reporting by DPA and AFP.]