REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Muhammadiyah, one of the main Islam mass organizations in Indonesia, refuted the idea that anti-alcohol legislation contradicted human rights. Human rights were not a forgiving reason to legalize alcohol, the chairman of central board of Muhammadiyah, Professor Dr Yunahar Ilyas said.  

“Human rights are not an excuse to legalize alcohol,” Ilyas said, Monday. 

He responded to comment made by National Committee of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that suggested anti-alcohol legislation to be reviewed. The human rights body said, those legislations were against human rights. 

We must view human rights in a wider perspective, Ilyas said. “We think respecting human rights should be applied to whole community, not only certain individuals nor group,” he said.  

Partial perspective on human rights might contradict the rights of others.   

“Human rights mean we respect each other,” Ilyas said.

The debates on anti-alcohol legislations in Indonesia are coincident with an article cited the plan of New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to limit the sale of alcohol in the city. He includes the plans of the limitation of advertising and promotions for bars and liquor. The article was published by the New York Post on January 11th. 

 And although it remains vague, the program could pick up steam with the help of local community boards, the Post cited. Lower East Side and Williamsburg, for example, have attempted to reduce the number of new liquor licenses in the neighborhoods, mostly in an attempt to reduce noise and general rowdiness.

The Mayor's plan also cites the fact that alcohol-related emergency room visits for underage New Yorkers doubled between 2003 and 2009. Alcohol is also a factor in nearly half of all city homicides and 28 percent of vehicle-crash fatalities. Another recent report showed that 42 percent of accidental subway deaths involve alcohol. 

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