MEDAN, Indonesia — Indonesia has been thrown into turmoil following the passage of a controversial new criminal code this week, with critics accusing the government of trying to usher in a new era of authoritarianism.
The code is a complete overhaul of the previous version, much of which was based on Dutch law drafted during the colonial period. Indonesia’s previous criminal code, known by its Indonesian initials as the KUHP, dates from 1918 and was codified and unified in 1946, following Indonesia’s independence the year before.
