Jakarta – The idea of injecting men who sexually abuse children with female hormones to reduce their sex drive has received support from many public figures, including President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, National Police Chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise and Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.
"It will be good if there's a law for that," said Ahok in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The idea of injecting female hormones into male pedophiles initially came from Social Affairs Minister Kofifah Indar Parawansa. According to Ahok, if the country really wants to apply this law, the country needs to draft a law that could accommodate such a punishment.
Badrodin said that such a punishment would deter other criminals from carrying out similar crimes. "I hope such punishments would have an effect on others," he said as reported by tempo.co on Wednesday.
According to Kofifah, President Jokowi agrees with the proposed law and has considered the possibility of issuing a regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) to create a legal basis for the new punishment.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the human rights group Setara Institute, Hendardi, said that there was no need to make laws, including a Perpu, to create a legal basis for injecting male pedophiles with female hormones.
He said that even if pedophiles were injected, they could still commit sexual violence against others. The better way to minimize such crimes, according to Hendardi, is to have heavier punishments against sex offenders who abuse children.
"I think it is enough to have a longer [prison] sentence for offenders," he said, adding that longer sentences for pedophiles could be included in the draft Criminal Code (KUHP) that was being revised. (edn/bbn)