Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – Winning Muslim support and refining the image of corrupt lawmakers ahead of next year's elections are motives behind the effort to pass an anti-pornography law, observers say.
With the majority of them pushing for passage of the bill while setting aside more urgent draft laws – particularly, the presidential election and corruption court bills – lawmakers have chosen their priorities based on what promises the greatest political return, critics added Friday.
"Legislators seem to be very pushy about the porn bill. They know it could increase support ahead of the elections, particularly from a large number of Muslim voters," said political analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia.
"In the first place, the bill is not intended to solve problems with pornography, but merely to win elections," he added.
"Lawmakers, in general, are seen as corrupt. Now they want to seem as if they supported anti-pornography as promoting good values and serving the aspirations of Muslims. But, in fact, they only want to polish their image."
With the 2009 legislative election just several months away, there are fears the bill will not be effective, given its rushed deliberation, said Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
"Winning the election is the only thing on the minds of lawmakers now. This would make them less attentive to the substance of the bill," he added.
"If they want to gain more Muslim votes with this bill, they should rethink the notion that all Muslims agree with mixing religion and the state," Ikrar added.
The House of Representatives has been divided over the controversial bill, with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) rejecting it, while the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and other Muslim-based factions insist on its passage.
PKS faction chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said Indonesia urgently needs an anti-pornography law due to widespread moral decadence, adding his party wanted the bill to be a "Ramadan gift".
Lawmakers, human rights activists and legal advocates opposed to the bill have criticized it for criminalizing victims of pornography and threatening the country's pluralism.
Critics have also said deliberations over the bill lack transparency as they are occurring out of the public spotlight.
"The deliberations over the bill have dismissed public involvement. Only in the final minutes did we hear it would be passed. There must be an agenda behind this," said Bivitri Susanti of the Indonesian Center for Law and Policy Studies.
Her office, along with other organizations, has lodged a complaint with the House against the bill, but received only defensive responses, she added. "The bill is still unclear in many parts, and this will lead to public misinterpretation. It is not fit for the present conditions of our society," Bivitri said.
The definition of pornography used in the bill encompasses any man-made work that includes sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative messages.
Article 9 and 11 of the bill – which pertain to actors and models – criminalize victims of pornography, while Article 21 allows any group or individual in society to take part in preventive measures, opening the way for hard-liners to take the law into their own hands and commit violence against others.