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Act on Pornography was considered full of political interests. West Papua Church Community and Speaker of Provincial Parliament of Papua refused the act. If this was not responded, they threatened to separate from Indonesia.

The Legalization of Porn Law Bill by the House last Thursday, still left pros and cons. The latest cons voiced by the Christian Church Allegation of West Papua and the Speaker of West Papua Provincial Parliament. They rejected the legalization of the Bill also urged both the Parliament and the Government to take action.

The urge was conducted by leaders of church union in three Regency and one city in Papua Province. They were Raja Ampat Regency, South Sorong Regency, Manokwari Regency, and Sorong City. These four regions were comprised of 40 church denominations in West Papua Province. They visited the Speaker of the Parliament Agung Laksono in Nusantara III Building 3rd floor, Parliamentary Office Complex, Jakarta, Monday (3/11).

In the meeting, Coordinator of the West Papua Church Allegation Andrikus Mofu threatened to disintegrate from the Republic of Indonesia if their demand concerning the Act on Pornography was abandoned. He commented that if the Act was put into effect in Papua area, this would cause social conflicts and the ones heading toward violation of Human Rights. Besides that, the Act could extinguish arts, cultures, tribes and races in Papua. “if our mission statement is not followed up, we leave the Republic,” he said after the meeting.

Moreover, claimed Andrikus, the Act on Pornography was on contrary to Act No 21/2001 on Special Autonomy for Papua Province. The rights was basically to protect human rights and basic rights of the Papua people with various tribes, traditions, cultures, arts, Customary laws and customary rights.

Andrikus also added that the formulation of Article 1 paragraph (1) and (2) of the Act were identical to the traditional people of Papua. Based on records, in estimation there were 265 tribes in Papua with distinctive tradition, customs, arts and cultures implied in their sets of living values.

Andrikus statement was agreed by the Speaker of West Papua Provincial Parliament, Jimmy Demianus Ijie. He said that this Act was thick with political interests for the sake of certain religious group. He said that the Act violated Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution.

Jimmy considered the Act as a legal product possible to disrupt the security stability. Act on Pornography could also triggered separation in many regions to disintegrate from the Republic of Indonesia. This potential was actually resulted by the eight fractions in the Parliament by agreeing to the legislation of the Act on Pornography. “We are told not to rip the Red-and-White flag, but eventually you are the ones doing that and forcing your demand by passing on the Act on Pornography,” he said.

“The sign of war has been made from Senayan, especially by the eight agreeing fraction, therefore we are ready to fight back!” exclaimed Jimmy.

Jimmy gave one month for the Parliament to respond to the demand of Papua people. They also requested the Parliament to act as a facilitator for deliver the same demand to the President.

If within this month, there was no follow-up, they announced their plan to file a judicial review of this Act to the Constitutional Court. He also announced that in the following Tuesday (4/10), there would be a massive demonstration to reject the existence of Act on Pornography.

Meanwhile, Agung Laksono pushed the government to make a socialization of the latest Act on Pornography. “We urged the government to follow up the existing act by explaining and socializing the Act on Pornography especially in four rejecting provinces (Bali, DIY, North Sulawesi, Papua),” explained Agung.

According to him, socialization was needed in order to minimize the negative impact caused by people’s lack of understanding concerning the content of the act. Besides that, socialization was intended to reduce misunderstanding that lead to the infliction from the opposing parties.

(CRF)

Source www.hukumonline.com (04/11/08)

Photo courtesy of http://www.yale.edu/gsp/papua/images/papua_1990_mosaic_sml.jpg

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