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Law enforcers on Thursday said that it would be almost impossible to uphold the controversial Pornography Law passed by the House of Representatives in October last year.
Prosecutors, the heads of the South Jakarta and Central Jakarta district courts, police and experts from the Constitutional Court all agreed that poor public acceptance, unclear terminology and contradictory articles were hindering enforcement of the law, and that more government regulations were needed to clarify exactly what it meant.
“It is difficult to prove any breach of the law,” said Nicolas A. Lilipaly, who heads the Jakarta Police’s detectives unit charged with combating pornography.
Speaking at a discussion organized by the National Commission on Violence Against Women on the implementation of the law, Nicolas said that it was impossible to enforce in its current form.
“We cannot implement the law, with its contradictory content. We prefer to wait until the government issues regulations to clarify the legislation,” he said.
The House of Representative passed the law despite widespread opposition. A number of provincial governments, including in Bali, Yogyakarta and North Sulawesi, made their rejection of the law clear while protesters from across Indonesia accused lawmakers of having failed to protect the country’s multicultural heritage.
Nicolas said that the police’s responsibility was not only to uphold the law, but also to maintain public order. The law, according to him, had the potential to disturb public order and the country’s multiculturalism.
“We are delaying the implementation to maintain public order. That is our basic principle,” he said.
Senior state prosecutor Sutiyono said that the law had many articles that were ambiguous. “It will be difficult to apply a law that is open to multiple interpretations,” he said. “It’s easier for us if the articles have a definite meaning. Up until now, police and prosecutors are using the Criminal Code in porn cases. It’s safer.”
South Jakarta District Court head Zahrul Rabain said the controversy that arose before the bill was passed would also be reflected in public reaction during its implementation.
“The controversy has shown a low public acceptance of the law. This could also be the condition if we push to enforce it.”
He said that a law should provide legal certainty, instead of increasing uncertainty. “Uncertainty will make the investigation process difficult and this could lead to chaos,” he said.
Zahrul also said that the different ways of implementing the law in different provinces — often relative to culture — made matters more complicated.
“We cannot apply the law in some provinces for purely cultural reasons. People should be equal under the law,” he said.
He pointed to some exceptions contained in the law, accorded to some Indonesian regions, such as in Papua, to safeguard local culture.
“And what makes it even more difficult is that if the crime involved an elementary school child who sent pornographic pictures via SMS, the punishment would be heavy,” he said.
Sentences would be up to 12 years in jail and fines of up to Rp 6 billion ($504,000), he said.