Indonesia – Sexism Endorsed by Constitutional Court?

It can be discouraging work, following how courts in Indonesia decide cases. 

I’m not talking about local courts, not the court in Serang, which handed out six-month sentences to the swine arraigned after  the Cikeusik Pogrom..

Victim of Islamist Murder Mob Gets Six Months in the Slammer 

…nor to the Temanggung court, which sentenced an eccentric evangelist to five years for criticising Islam (and that wasn’t enough for the bigot rabble present –

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Islamonazi Church-Burning – Java Prosecutors Back Off Serious Punishment – Christians Fear to Protest   .

– the judge had to flee from their amok-run, his failure to have the fellow executed inexcusable, in their view, despite no such penalty being on the statute book!)

Nor even to the imprisonment, under the so-called ‘blasphemy law,’ of a Shia cleric in East Java, for preaching his own denomination’s beliefs.Outlawing Witchcraft? Outlaw Bakor Pakem! 

These local verdicts are bizarre, to put it charitably.

But what about the higher levels, like the Constitutional Court?

I was scanning the Jakarta Globe over my fourth cup of kopi jawa the other day when I came upon an article by some woman named Barr, from Human Rights Watch, about child marriage.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/commentary-indonesia-swims-tide-child-marriage/

When I see the word ‘child,’ I tend these days to be on guard.

There was a ludicrous item recently https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2015/07/16/600-unaccompanied-child-asylum-seekers-deported-uk-afghanistan/ about the deportation from Britain of  ‘unaccompanied  child asylum seekers,’ a catch-phrase that conjures up images of tiny tots being loaded aboard and shipped off, clutching teddy-bears, to foreign parts.

On closer inspection, it turned out the ‘tot’ who starred in the ‘scandal’ was a 23-year-old, who’d been in the UK for years!

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And of course there’s the recurrent theme  of renegade ‘British’ ‘children’ sloping off to join rape-gangs in the Middle East, who at 16 or 17 years old are just as capable of knowing what’s right and wrong as you and I were at that age.

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And it’s not just ‘British’ ‘children!’ 

Australian teenager in court over terrorist bomb plot – BBC …

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32686275 – – An Australian teenager who allegedly planned a bomb plot appears in children’s court in Melbourne charged with terrorism offences.

Montreal teen pleads not guilty to terror charges | CTV News

http://www.ctvnews.ca – A 15-year-old Montreal teenager appeared in court Wednesday on charges of committing robbery to benefit a terrorist group, making him the first youth charged 

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Treason is a crime not too difficult to categorise as a very big wrong, and since 16-year-olds in Scotland now enjoy (with full SNP approval) full voting rights, I presume at least those 50 plus SNP MPs at Westminster are leading a chorus of demands for adult punishment for young traitors.

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Right, back to topic – those paragraphs above simply included to show that I’m not some neo-colonialist that picks on Indonesia while ignoring Western short-comings.

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The Barr article has a go at Indonesia for allowing ‘child marriage.’

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The Constitutional Court rejected a petition against the 1974 Marriage Law, which is indeed open to criticism – not least the disgusting rule that permits primitives to engage in polygamy – men, but not of course women (sex equality doesn’t figure) can take extra spouses, if the existing spouse is disabled, terminally ill or unable to bear children.  

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https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/polygamous-primitives-sacked-in-surabaya/

Any country that countenances polygamy should either outlaw the practice or legalise polyandry, but sadly, many morons here regard women as undeserving of respect as human beings. 

‘Immoral Activities – Sitting in Coffee Shops Laughing and Talking…’ 

IslamoNazi Gauleiter – “Women Already Have Limitations, Let Alone Non-Muslims!” 

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But in this case the complaints were about that part which permits women and men to marry as they choose once they reach 21, but allows girls to marry at 16 with parental permission. Boys must wait until they are 19 to marry with parental permission.

Ms Barr is agitated about the age of 16, reckoning it’s too young.

But as noted, Scots of that age can vote and, if I’m not wrong, Scotland has traditionally let people marry at that age. And with parental consent, the same applies in various European and US jurisdictions. 

And I have to say, in fairness to the current legal state of affairs, that, having taught teenagers in Jakarta for my first dozen or so years here, Indonesian girls DO often show significantly more mature attitudes than boys.

Of course it’s up to Indonesians to decide on the appropriate age for marriage.

But in this day and age, surely there can be no sensible excuse for discriminating between boys and girls.

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However, if President Jokowi seriously wants to apply his ‘Mental Revolution’ to this archipelago, he will surely expedite his Minister of Women’s Employment, Yohana Yembise, who has pledged to reform that 1974 act.

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 Minister Yembise

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Unfortunately, the present parliament seems submissive to sectarian prejudice…

‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims! 

  …so she may have her work cut out for her.