Leiden University Student Repository

Schepel, Maureen (2023)

The moral turn and polarization in Indonesia: Evidence from recent legislative debates

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

Indonesia is experiencing a phenomenon that is called the moral turn. Increasingly, people are aiming to regulate the moralities of others and their private lives. This trend is happening at the same time as others, like polarization. By analysing three pieces of recent (proposed) legislation that are examples of the moral turn (the Family Resilience Bill, the Sexual Violence Bill and the Criminal Code), I look at whether and to what extent the moral turn is polarizing Indonesian society. In the end, I argue that the moral turn in Indonesia has highlighted the divisions between pluralists, nationalists and liberalist on the one hand and moralists and Islamists on the other, but that it has most importantly brought these groups together as they came to several agreements around the legislative debates.

Indonesia

moral turn

polarization

legislating morality

Author

Schepel, Maureen

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Southeast Asian Studies

Supervisors

Henley, D.E.F.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en