Indonesia halts controversial penal code revision amid nationwide protests

This appeared in The Millennial Source

On September 20, 2019, President Joko Widodo abruptly delayed the passage of Indonesia’s Draft Penal Code, a controversial 628-article bill that would overhaul the nation’s criminal laws. The revised code would further restrict freedom of speech in a country where it is already limited, and also ban sex outside of marriage.

The bill had been expected to win the approval of the Indonesian Parliament in a vote…