, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 06/29/2006 4:26 PM
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Golkar Party should drop its support for the controversial pornography bill because passing the legislation would only harm national unity, an alliance of artists, lawyers, and religious scholars says.
Members of the Alliance of Unity in Diversity met Golkar legislators at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
They said the draft law was invalid because it regulated moral and ethical issues, in which the state had no authority to intervene.
Playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said the House had erred in its deliberations of the bill, which has sparked a bitter national debate.
""The deliberation process is invalid because the bill, tabled by the House's plenary session on Aug. 25, 2005, is not based on legal references.""
Ratna said the drafting of the bill did not involve the mandatory working committee and the two versions of the bill produced by the government and the House were unwieldy and vastly different in scope and content.
""The draft revision ended up with two versions, with 93 chapters and 36 chapters respectively, and the two versions were both signed off by special committee chairman Balkan Kaplale on March 11, 2006,"" she said.
Ratna said the bill was more about instituting sharia law and fighting secularism than controlling pornography.
""A certain group of people have supported the bill in an attempt to uphold sharia law and they have accused their opponents of being pornography supporters and secularists,"" she said.
The alliance, which is promoting the revitalization of the state ideology Pancasila, also called on Golkar legislators to press the government to annul sharia-style bylaws passed by more than 20 regional administrations. It should also ensure action was taken against groups that used violence in the name of religion, it said.
""All of this negates pluralism and the Pancasila,"" Ratna said.
Chairunnisa, a deputy chairwoman of the House's special committee deliberating the bill, said she would convey the alliance's views to her party and the committee for consideration.
Irsyad Sudiro, another Golkar legislator who accompanied Chairunnisa, said Golkar also supported religious tolerance and concepts of pluralism.
""Pancasila is our common ideology and all elements in society should respect one another, regardless of the majority or minority groups (they belong to),"" he said.
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