Indonesia enacts law that makes criticising politicians a crime, and Widodo can’t do anything about it
The bill opens to the door to pressing charges against anyone who ‘disrespects parliament or its members’ but does not set minimum or maximum jail terms
Indonesians could be jailed for criticising national politicians under a new law that came into force on Thursday, in what critics slammed as a major step back for the world’s third-biggest democracy.
The vaguely worded bill passed the 560-member house last month but has just become official, over the objections of President Joko Widodo who refused to sign off on the controversial legislation.
Widodo does not have veto power over the bill, although it can be challenged at the Constitutional Court.
The so-called MD3 law opens to the door to pressing charges against anyone who “disrespects parliament or its members” but does not set out possible minimum or maximum jail terms.
Indonesia is the third biggest democracy globally behind India and the United States.
Protesters across the Southeast Asian archipelago who blasted the bill could potentially see themselves jailed for such demonstrations in the future, critics said.