Indonesia Ministry of Health has decided to cancel this year’s National Condom Week after facing uproar from Muslim leaders who criticized the event’s promotion campaign as encouraging sexual promiscuity.

“We met with the campaign organizers on Monday and we have all agreed that the campaign should be stopped,” the ministry’s disease control and environmental health chief, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, was quoted by Jakarta Post on Thursday, December 5.

National Condom Week is organized by the Health Affairs Ministry and carried out by the National AIDS Commission (KPA) in cooperation with a leading condom manufacturer.

This year, one of the program’s advertisements included posters on a city bus showing actress and singer Julia Perez in a sexy pose along with the National Condom Week 2013 logo.

The advertisement sparked condemnations from the country’s largest Muslim organization which urged the Health Affairs Ministry to halt the campaign, held from Dec 1 to 7.

“I urge the ministry to stop observing National Condom Week because it justifies casual sexual behavior,” said Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) head K.H. Hasyim Muzadi on Tuesday, Indonesian news agency ANTARA reported.

On Monday, Indonesian Ulema Council’s (MUI) chairman K.H. Amidhan said his party voiced opposition to condom week.

“The MUI does not agree with the implementation of National Condom Week because it only suits the interests of the condom manufacturers and does not promote the use of contraceptives,” he said.

Amidhan argued that promoting condoms could be misinterpreted by teenagers as permission to engage in casual sexual activities.

“Sex education for the public, including teenagers, is more important than promoting condom use,” he said.

While the Health Ministry was hosting the press briefing, more than 50 students from the Islamic Students Association (HMI) burned condoms outside the ministry’s office to reject the campaign.

“We reject National Condom Week because it offends Muslims. We must reject this,” said one of the protesters.

“We want Nafsiah Mboi to apologize for this policy,” another said in a speech, referring to the Health Minister.

Defense

The new ad campaign has added to the criticism facing the event since its outset in 2007.

“The campaign has been relatively the same since 2007; the only difference now is that we have these ads on a bus that only travels to Cilandak Town Square,” KPA secretary Kemal Siregar said, referring to a shopping mall in South Jakarta.

Siregar said the bus was not even used to distribute condoms.

“The bus only operates in Jakarta and it was not used to distribute free condoms. We used the bus solely for communicating our message,” he said, brushing aside allegations that the bus had traveled to the outskirts of Jakarta to distribute condoms to the public.

The opposition to the National Condom Week bus began on the Internet, with several social media users accusing condom maker DKT Indonesia of handing out free condoms.

KPA secretary added that even though the campaign had been terminated, the commission would proceed with other programs to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“Our focus is on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission and the campaign only prioritizes those at risk. Thus, it will be conducted in a closed location and will be aimed directly at sex workers and drug users,” Kemal said.

“We are obliged to inform the public that condoms are a health device to prevent unwanted pregnancy and HIV/AIDS,” he said.

Kemal also denied reports that condoms had been distributed to schools and colleges in the country.

“We only distributed leaflets about HIV/AIDS to students,” he said.

According to the UN, Indonesia has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia.

Health Ministry data shows that from 1987 through the third quarter of this year, 108,600 people were infected with HIV, 43,667 of whom were diagnosed with AIDS, in 348 out of 497 regencies across the archipelago.

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