JAKARTA – Despite prolonged protests in Bali, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has signed the anti-pornography bill, ratifying a law that criminalises any sex-related materials deemed to violate public morality.
The government is now preparing a regulation to implement the law.
Resistance to the law remains widespread, with some provinces — including Bali, Papua, North Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara — rejecting it out of hand.
Balinese and the island’s local administration have threatened to protest the law with a civil disobedience campaign, while other human rights and religious groups have said they would file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court if the law were ratified.
The Jakarta Post reported that the ratification of the law also means Yudhoyono has defied one of his advisors, Adnan Buyung Nasution, who recommended the president not sign or ratify the law, warning it could threaten national unity.
An article of the proposed law that allows members of the public to take action to destroy pornographic material has raised fears several groups could take the law into their own hands and have grounds to justify the use of violence and intimidation.
It is unclear whether the new law will be applied to women wearing bikinis on Bali beaches, or whether it will see Bali’s sometimes erotic cultural dances and statues attacked by vigilantes.
