According to a proposal initiated by some high officials in the Provincial Government of Bengkulu, - and supported by the regional Ulema Council (MUI) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs - premarital testing for the AIDS-causing virus HIV should become mandatory for obtaining a marriage license.

That the healthcare system in the US too has failed to develop a pragmatic approach for dealing with HIV/AIDS is quite clear from the fact that in Massachusetts, 31 percent of the people who are tested positive for the virus become afflicted with advanced AIDS within a couple of months.

Such statistics underscore that the AIDS victims do not come to know of their infection for years and, hence, miss out on treatment; infecting others in the process. The premarital AIDS testing plan is speedily gaining momentum and backing in other provinces also.

As per the reports, a number of Religious Affairs Offices in Lebak, Banten, are considering the effective implementation of the said measure. The MUI sections in Maluku, Jambi and North Sumatra are also deliberating on the idea of premarital AIDS testing.

The proponents of the idea are calling upon the local government to make the premarital AIDS testing policy a regional regulation, saying that it would discourage the youth from engaging in premarital sex, as they would not be allowed to marry, if they test HIV positive.