Jakarta Sexists – “We Have Rights!” – To Multiple Spouses For Men Only!

Amid a long-standing controversy surrounding polygamy in Indonesia, a group promoting the polygamous lifestyle has announced a plan to file a judicial review against a number of articles in the 1974 Marriage Law, as it deems the articles discriminative against those committing the controversial practice.
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Ludicrous, the backward element shrilling about the law being discriminative, when polygamy itself represents the vilest discriminatory affront to equity, giving men ample options to assuage their carnal needs but without corresponding privileges for women.

• And interesting that these sexist fanatics invoke that 1974 law.

If I remember right from my modern history books, it was meant to be a major reformist move but such was the rage among sectarian bigots that it was watered down. “Muslim criticism was directed at the Bill’s restrictions on polygamy and acceptance of interreligious mixed marriages.” [9] There were heated debates on the bill in the People’s Representative Assembly as well as protests by Muslim students. [10]

Even Suharto’s iron regime quailed before Islamist intolerance.  As a result of the strong opposition and potential for serious unrest, an amended statute was enacted on January 2, 1974, that permitted polygamous marriage and excluded the provision that would have specifically allowed inter-religious marriages.[11]\http://www.loc.gov/law/help/religious-marriage.php

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•  Strongman Suharto
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So a golden opportunity to reinforce Indonesia’s position as a modern democratic nation was missed because of a pack of rowdy ‘student’ louts ( presumably barely educated pesantren primitives)and their equally intolerant elders.

However, fast forward….

• Here’s Fakhrul, of the Sakinah Polygamous Family Forum (FKPS) – 
• “The one-family-one-wife rule has made it difficult for a polygamous family to obtain a family card, or birth certificates for their children. This is clearly discriminative as it [polygamy] is a part of the implementation of Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution that promotes religious freedom.” 

Oh yeah?

Fakhrul, who claimed to have two wives, said Islamic teachings allowed Muslims to practice polygamy. 

So?

Indonesia is not an Islamic Republic but a pluralist democracy, so unless and until the entire archipelago follows the primitive province of Aceh and adopts shariah law, propriety will prevail.

More or less. .

The Marriage Law upholds the principle of monogamy, but allows husbands to have multiple wives under certain conditions, including that of being married to a woman who is suffering from a serious illness and unable to bear a child.

Aha!

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• Blatant discrimination enshrined in national legislation?

What about a woman married to a man with a serious illness? Or to a man who’s sterile and unable to give her a child?

Women like that should surely, equally, enjoy the right to an extra husband or two, if they can stand the idea!

Time for the UN or some other body of sticky-beaks to come in and tell Jakarta to shape up? Actually, that should not need to happen. There are a lot of intelligent Indonesians, who use their brains rather than stifle them with archaic dogma. 

The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has urged the government to speed up an amendment to the Marriage Law to strengthen principles of monogamy. It recorded more than 70 polygamy cases involving public officials that ended up as sexual abuse cases in 2015.

But it will be an uphill struggle.

We reported on the bizarre sexist circular from the Defense Ministry last year…

Happy Ever After in Jakarta? Ministry Denies Report Of Sexist Marriage Rules! 

… and there are numerous polygamists in high places.

The report names several, including Bin Laden fan Anis Matta.  

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https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/bin-laden-fan-takes-over-mb-clones-mired-in-bribe-row/

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You’d think with friends like Matta, polygamy would be even more abhorrent to normal folk – but Indonesia is a very unusual place.  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/03/polygamists-file-judicial-review-marriage-law.html

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.