Amir Tejo, Dessy Sagita & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A backlash against a government campaign to emphasize the importance of condoms as part of an HIV/AIDS awareness program could hurt efforts to curb new infections in the country, campaigners have warned.
"I know this is a sensitive issue but please be more sensible," Kemal Siregar, the secretary of the National AIDS Commission (KPAN), said on Tuesday in response to criticism that promoting condom use would only encourage sexual promiscuity. "If we want to tackle HIV/AIDS problems, we have to work comprehensively on prevention and harm reduction."
Kemal said opposition to the campaign stemmed largely from a lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission.
"It is so easy for the public to be swayed by rumors. It is not true that condoms encourage people to engage in risky sexual behavior; it is just a health tool to protect people from getting infected with the virus," he said. Although condom awareness in Indonesia has progressed in the last five years, many challenges remain, he said.
The controversy surrounding the condom campaign emerged during the observance of World AIDS Day on Sunday, which coincided with National Condom Week, commemorated in the first week of December every year.
The opposition began on the Internet, with several social media users accusing the social organization DKT of distributing free condoms from a bus parked in front of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University. DKT responded immediately to the protests, saying the bus was sent to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS and that no distribution of condoms took place.
Religious conservatives have also blasted National Condom Week as an insidious campaign condoning and encouraging pre-marital sex.
"We strongly reject the National Condom Week in East Java," Abdul Shomad Bukhori, chairman of the East Java chapter of Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), said on Tuesday. "We believe there are many other, better, ways to educate people about the danger of HIV/AIDS."
Irgan Chairul Mahfiz, a deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' health oversight commission, also expressed his opposition to the condom campaign. He urged Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi to halt the ministry's program to distribute free condoms to high-risk groups.
The ministry announced last year that it would distribute 10 million free condoms to commercial sex workers who would otherwise not be able to afford them.
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) warned that Indonesia would see 76,000 new HIV cases each year if it did not come up with a strategy to overcome the problem.