The New Indonesian Marriage Law: A Mirror of Indonesia's Political, Cultural, and Legal Systems

Abstract

Indonesias 1st national marriage law effective January 2 1974 was an attempt to unify the diverse legal systems and parts of legal systems which regulate Indonesian familial matters. Although now on the statute books the law has had little effect. Its history of enactment and its prospects of implementation supply a mirror of Indonesias legal political and cultural processes. Moslems felt that they had been pushed aside in the formulation of the proposal and they also objected to some of the bills articles which they considered contrary to their religion. Heated debates took place both within and outside the House of Representatives. Of the many articles of the proposed bill which aroused controversy Article 2(1) -- which stipulated that registration was necessary for a valid marriage -- was the most debated. Also causing much debate were Articles 3 and 40 which required permission from a civil court before a Moslem man may marry more than 1 wife and before a Moslem man or woman may divorce his or her spouse. Another debated subject was Article 11(2) which stipulates that religious differences are not obstacles to marriage. Moslem objection to this proposed article has a long history. The original bill had 73 articles and the compromise law had 67. Anything determined to be contrary to Islamic law in the original bill was either changed taken out or left subject to future implementing regulations.