Family Resilience Bill is Antifamily

Again we are surprised by the proposal of a bill that is considered controversial by the wider community. This bill has lost social legitimacy since its formulation.

Even though written with words and phrases that appear to glorify the family, many articles threaten the survival of the Indonesian family. This paper will examine whether the Family Resilience Bill meets the requirements for establishing good laws, namely philosophically, legally and sociologically. Next it will show how this bill harms women as legal subjects.

Fulfilling juridical requirements

Philosophically, this bill is problematic. HLA Hart, a philosopher and jurist, said that law and moral ethics must be separated. This separation is intended to enable moral ethics and law to correct each other. Law indeed originates from moral tradition, and aims to protect society from crime, greed and ensure justice.

It is likewise with moral ethics. However, not all moral principles must be made into written law. Moral ethics is higher than the law, even though it does not carry the threat of prosecution, it carries very strong social sanctions. Many articles of the bill should be in the realm of ethics, not in the realm of law.

This bill excessively regulates what may and may not be done in a husband and wife relationship. State intervention goes too far went it touches on the issue of intimate relationships and reproductive rights. The substance of the bill also sharpens community segregation because it aims to maintain the purity of blood and religious descent by prohibiting sperm and ovum donors, surrogacy and the adoption of children of different religions.

There are various policies to address the disadvantages of women and children, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Judicially, the overall substance of this bill shows overlapping and inconsistencies with various other laws and regulations, which ensure women\'s equality. As a modern state, our constitution guarantees equality between men and women before the law. The struggle of Indonesian civil society, especially since the reform era, has given birth to many legal instruments in the realm of women\'s human rights. There are various policies to address the disadvantages of women and children, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This bill does not fulfill the requirements of a good legal formula. Many articles are tautological, contain repetitive statements and use excessive and unnecessary words. Many definitions are explained in technical terms, not narratives. This means this bill does not have a basic concept and a clear legal doctrine. This bill exceeds the limits of its authority because it regulates many domain affairs of various other laws and regulations. This bill also regulates the issue of sexual violence covered in the Criminal Code and the bill on the elimination of sexual violence (PKS).

Kompas/Heru Sri Kumoro

The mural demands the passing of a bill to eradicate sexual violence on Jalan Bekasi Timur Raya, North Jakarta, Thursday (20/2/2020).

The court\'s authority to force divorced fathers to support their children is also taken over by this bill. Sociologically, the substance of this bill is not in accordance with the facts, reality, and experience of Indonesian women. There are millions of women working in the formal or informal sector and their incomes are used for family needs. There are also 14,744 women migrant workers, 9,104 of whom are married, who generate large foreign exchange (BNP2TKI, 2019). Women are the backbone of the family.

The history of the Indonesian women\'s movement began before independence. They fought elegantly through organizations and legal corridors. The Poetri Mahardika organization sent a motion to the governor-general of the Netherlands demanding legal equality around 1915. The first Women\'s Congress of Dec. 22 1928 gave birth to the Association of Indonesian Wives Association. This organization sent a motion to the People\'s Council, the National Faction, and the governor-general of the Netherlands, demanding that indigenous women’s political rights to vote and be elected in the City Council be upheld. To this day, the women\'s movement is an important part of the Indonesian civil society movement; becoming a watchdog overseeing the course of democracy, the implementation of the constitution and the ideals of the nation\'s founders. Making a bill that domesticates women will stop women\'s contribution to the progress of the nation.

In fact, the most dangerous external influences in Indonesia today are radical teachings and intolerant culture that threatens the social cohesion of the people.

This bill assumes that all Indonesian families have the potential to experience vulnerability due to outside influences that give birth to casual sex and "deviant" sexual orientations so that the most intimate family affairs must be regulated by the state. The focus is only on the matter of private sexual acts between men and women, not on seeing humans as social creatures who have common sense and who work together to empower each other. In fact, the most dangerous external influences in Indonesia today are radical teachings and intolerant culture that threatens the social cohesion of the people.

The solution to the vulnerability of families being offered is religious education. In fact, Indonesia\'s education curriculum from Early Childhood Education (PAUD) to university already includes religious education. Pupils and students must follow their own religious lessons, it is not possible to learn from other religions, even though are actually needed to build mutual understanding and respect for differences. Religious lessons in formal schools are taught as a belief system (a way of worship), not as a social knowledge system that provides intellectual wealth. It seems that the religion in question is only an official religion because it emphasizes that the validity of marriage and children is marked by a certificate. Meanwhile, many adherents of faiths outside the six official religions do not have marriage certificates and birth certificates simply only because their religion is not recognized by the Civil Registry Office, even though they are Indonesian citizens. This bill is discriminatory.

One of the major theories in the science of law is feminist jurisprudence. The idea is to ask questions about a law from a woman’s perceptive in order to test it. How are women\'s sexuality, imagination and roles structured and conceptualized by the law? Are women\'s realities and experiences taken into account in the law? Does the law harm women, which groups of women, and in what ways?

This bill is clearly detrimental to women and men because they want the state, central and regional governments to intervene in the private, closed, culturally taboo sector to be known to others.

The substance of this bill places women as legal subjects that are different from men because of gender. Double standards apply to regulate what roles may and may not be performed by husband and wife. An idea that overturns historical facts, reality, and experiences of Indonesian women. This bill is clearly detrimental to women and men because they want the state, central and regional governments to intervene in the private, closed, culturally taboo sector to be known to others.

Priority of legal issues

The next question about the law is which legal issues should be prioritized? Why is a bill like this being proposed? There are other bills that need to be passed. The PKS Bill, for example, has been in the House of Representatives (DPR) for three years, but only its title has been debated, even politicized, leading to misleadingly claims that the bill is contrary to religion. In fact, statistics show that every 30 minutes there are two victims of sexual violence in Indonesia.

If it is indeed aimed at advancing the interests of Indonesian families, there is also the Gender Equality and Justice Bill that must be followed up on. Allowing women to ask questions of a law is necessary to guarantee the social legitimacy of a law that governs relations among citizens. The questions women ask are all our questions.

Sulistyowati Irianto, Gender and Law Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Indonesia