The religious leader and former president Gus Dur, and his wife Sinta, have come out against the proposed new law on pornography and indecency.

In an Indonesian language piece published on his site Gus Dur, real name Abdurrahman Wahid, asked legislators to reject the bill and claimed that those who supported it did so out of fear of hardline Muslim groups.

It’s a politicisation of religion. They are afraid of hardline Islam, those who view religion in a formalised way.

If members of parliament are not brave enough to change the draft bill the people will change it for them. And I will struggle for such change.

He said that many laws of the country which attempted to regulate the daily lives of citizens did not aid in the creation of prosperity and added that most laws just made people confused.

There is no need for the anti-porn law. Rules that attempt to determine or fix social morality are just funny.

His wife, Sinta Nuriyah, was also scathing in her criticism. She said that the law was a way of blaming social ills on women, as we looked at in Arab or Indonesian?. More problems were caused by leaders who were not responsible in their duty to the people, she added.

The nation and the decision makers should cancel this law.

She also said that there were far more important issues at hand such as domestic violence, discrimination against women, maternal death, illiteracy, and so forth.

Gus Dur does not always make the best sense, and his position may be on the extreme, libertarian end, but it is a useful counter-balance to its opposite.