Fears Australians in Bali could be caught out by new Sharia-style laws

Harsh new Sharia-style laws will all but certainly become legislation in Indonesia, with fears Australians could be caught out while on holiday in Bali.

A growing Islamic conservatism in Indonesia is driving the new laws, which include a ban on sex outside of marriage.

That could land you in jail for six months.

“I think people going to Bali at least need to be aware of it,” Damien Kingsbury, a professor of international politics at Deakin University, told Neil Mitchell.

Professor Kingsbury has written four books on Indonesia and says he’d be arrested at immigration if he ever went there.

He said the laws, like any in Indonesia, could be open to corruption, with police likely to target foreigners in the hope of being bribed.

Professor Kingsbury said there was a growing influence from Saudi Arabia in Indonesia.

“There’s a lot of Saudi money coming in,” he said.

“And there’s condition to that money which is around the imposition of more strict adherence to formal Islamic rules.

“But the other side of it is there’s always been an undercurrent of Islamisation in Indonesia and that’s really starting to come to the fore.”

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