Indonesia considers national alcohol ban

The Indonesian government is proposing a new law that would ban the production, distribution and consumption of alcohol across the country.

A bill to ban drinks containing more than 1% of alcohol was introduced by two Islamic political parties, the United Development Party and the Prosperous Justice Party, and is being deliberated by Indonesia’s House of Representatives.

Some officials believe that the ban, which is up for a vote in the coming weeks, could effectively kill the local tourism industry.

The introduction of the bill has sparked uproar within Indonesia’s tourism and hospitality sectors, and could tear down the tourism trade, which relies heavily on visitors from other countries as their main source of income.

Last year, Indonesia outlawed the sale of alcohol in mini-marts, despite an outcry from tourism and alcohol industry representatives

Indonesia Institute president Ross Taylor told news.com.au moves to ban booze in Indonesia did have support, and not just from religious groups.

“There’s a lot of people in Indonesia right now taking the view – and they might not be wrong – that if you look at the Western world, and what alcohol is doing to young people, we don’t want that in Indonesia and we want to ban alcohol,” he said.

“There’s a lot of discussion in Indonesian society about the damage [alcohol] does to the wider community. The problem, of course, is if you ban it, you then create this enormous black market and it causes a whole lot of other problems.

“But in Bali, especially, there’s a very strong feeling that it’s the last thing you’d want to do, because if tourists can’t have a beer or wine on the beach, the potential consequences for tourism are going to be very severe indeed.”

Indonesia already has two areas that have complete alcohol bans – the province of Papua and more recently the port city of Surabaya in Java, where an alcohol ban was introduced in May.

Indonesia isn’t the only country taking action to control alcohol consumption, British leisure airline Jet2.com recently banned the sale of alcohol on morning flights, calling for retailers and airports to follow its lead.