Protesters set fires and threw rocks at riot police in Makassar on Sulawesi island to protest against a new criminal code law (AFP Photo/DAENG MANSUR) |
Jakarta (AFP) - Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters outside Indonesia's parliament Tuesday as thousands demonstrated nationwide against a new criminal code that would, among other things, outlaw pre-marital sex and weaken the country's anti-graft agency.
Protesters
covered their faces and scattered in all directions as chaos erupted in the
centre of the sprawling capital, Jakarta.
Police also
fired teargas at rock-throwing protesters in Makassar on Sulawesi island, while
demonstrators broke down a barrier outside the governor's office in Semarang on
Java island.
"(We)
forcibly dispersed student because they were carrying out anarchist acts,
damaging government property and throwing stones at police," said Dicky
Sondani, a South Sulawesi police spokesman.
The police
action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered
across the
Southeast Asian archipelago (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)
|
The police
action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered across the
Southeast Asian archipelago -- including in cultural capital Yogyakarta and
holiday hotspot Bali -- for a second day in a row.
On Tuesday,
lawmakers debated a wide-ranging legal overhaul including hundreds of new laws
that would criminalise pre-marital sex, restrict sales of contraceptives, make
it illegal to insult the president, and toughen the Muslim majority country's
blasphemy laws.
"We want
the bill which is being debated to be revised," said Jakarta university
student Amel.
"The
police were excessive teargassing us. We weren't being violent," he added.
A vote on
the bill was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but President Joko Widodo last
week called for a delay in passing the proposed changes after a public
backlash.
The mooted changes could affect millions of Indonesians, including gay and heterosexual couples who might face jail for having sex outside wedlock, or having an affair.
Riot police used water cannon against protesters in Sulawesi (AFP Photo/ Andri SAPUTRA) |
The mooted changes could affect millions of Indonesians, including gay and heterosexual couples who might face jail for having sex outside wedlock, or having an affair.
Widodo's
call for a delay came as the Australian embassy in Jakarta issued a fresh
travel advisory, warning that the legislation could put unmarried foreign
tourists in the crosshairs.
Millions of
tourists visit Bali and other beach destinations in the Southeast Asian nation.
Widodo this
week stood firm on plans to pass a separate bill that critics fear would dilute
the investigative powers of the corruption-fighting agency -- known as the KPK
-- including its ability to wire-tap suspects.
The police
action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered
across the
Southeast Asian archipelago (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)
|
Updating
Indonesia's criminal code, which dates back to the Dutch colonial era, has been
debated for decades and appeared set to pass in 2018 before momentum fizzled
out.
A renewed
push this year, backed by conservative Islamic groups, was met with a wave of
criticism over what many saw as a draconian law that invaded the bedrooms of a
nation with some 260 million people -- the fourth most populous on Earth.
An online
petition calling for the bill to be scrapped garnered half a million
signatures, while hundreds of thousands took to social media to vent their
frustration.
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