Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Lawmakers deliberating the controversial bill on pornography will meet Monday to decide whether to pass or delay it until after the House of Representatives ends its recess late next month.
"It all depends on whether in the House working committee's meeting tomorrow we can reach an agreement on all (contentious) articles in the bill," committee member Eva Kusuma Sundari told The Jakarta Post here Sunday.
She said the Monday meeting would be a follow-up to the working committee's debate of the bill held last Thursday and Friday.
Agung Sasongko, deputy chairman of the House's special committee, confirmed that the deliberation of the pornography bill would depend on the working committee's meeting on Monday.
Last week, Agung said the House had decided to delay the deliberation of the pornography bill until late November because of the heated debate over the issue.
Eva said that should the working committee manage to settle all the contentious issues in the bill during Monday's meeting, a House special committee would discuss it further on Tuesday before passing it at a House plenary session two days later.
"But I doubt it because many working committee members are going on working visits right now, so I think the meeting will not meet the quorum," she added.
Eva said the working committee had yet to agree on many articles in the bill, particularly the definition of pornography.
The current draft defines pornography as "man-made sexual materials either in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, voice, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations, gestures, or other forms of communicative messages through various kinds of media; and or performances in front of the public, which may incite sexual desire and or violate moral ethics in the community".
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) are the only two of the 10 factions in the House that have staunchly criticized or opposed the bill.
Eva, a lawmaker from the PDI-P, said her party had rejected the definition and demanded that gestures and performances be excluded from the definition.
The party also opposed an article that allows for the public to take a role in preventing pornography, saying it could justify people taking the law into their own hands.
"We want this article dropped from the bill to protect artists and minority groups from moral police within the community," she said.
Eva said protection for artists and cultural heritage should be included in the articles on protection of children and cultural products.
Asked whether the House would pass the bill despite mounting opposition from provinces such as Bali and South Sulawesi, Eva said the House's consultative body had ordered the government and the special committee to engage in discussions with local leaders to increase their understanding of the bill.
"Unfortunately, the head of the special committee refused the idea, saying that was the government's job," she said.