Can You Wear a Hammer and Sickle or USSR Shirt in Bali?

Better not. A T-shirt, flag, pin or souvenir with a hammer and sickle, including designs reading СССР, can be treated as spreading communist teachings, which Article 188 of the new Criminal Code (Law 1/2023, in force since 2 January 2026) punishes with up to 4 years in prison. Recorded cases involving shirt wearers have ended with the shirt confiscated and a signed statement rather than jail, but a police check can still cost you a day of your holiday. Checked 28 October 2026.

What Article 188 says

• Paragraph (1): spreading and developing communism/Marxism-Leninism in public, orally, in writing or through any media, carries up to 4 years in prison.
• Paragraph (2): if done with the aim of replacing Pancasila, up to 7 years. Paragraphs (3)-(5) raise the penalty if it causes unrest, serious injury or death.
• Paragraph (6): study for academic purposes is not punished. Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas confirmed this on 6 January 2026 (Metro TV), while stating that spreading the ideology remains banned.

The article text above was checked on pasal.id. The ban is not new: it comes from Law 27/1999 and MPRS Decree XXV/MPRS/1966, which dissolved the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Note that the Code does not mention "shirts" or "symbols" explicitly. Police have acted on complaints from the public, and whether a shirt counts as "spreading" is decided during questioning.

What has happened to shirt wearers

• Mataram, Lombok, 13 April 2017: a 50-year-old Malaysian was questioned by police in a hotel lobby over a hammer-and-sickle shirt. The shirt was seized and he was released with a warning after saying he did not know about the ban (Free Malaysia Today, 14 April 2017).
• Ternate, 13 October 2023: a 23-year-old woman was detained after her photo went viral. She signed a statement and handed over the shirt (ANTARA, 14 October 2023).
• Bali: as of a search on 28 October 2026, there are no media reports of a tourist questioned in Bali over a USSR shirt. That is no guarantee, because cases elsewhere started with a resident's photo on social media.

For visitors from Russia and former Soviet states

In Russia, СССР or hammer-and-sickle shirts are often worn as nostalgia and sold openly. In Indonesia the symbol is tied directly to the PKI and the events of 1965, so local reactions can be far stronger than you expect. The items that most often cause trouble:

• T-shirts, caps or jackets with a hammer and sickle;
• the red Soviet flag, including for beach or villa photos posted on Instagram;
• hammer-and-sickle pins and badges on bags;
• band shirts or fashion designs with the symbol. In 2016 sellers of a Kreator band shirt in Jakarta were arrested before being released.

If you have already packed one, keep it in your suitcase and do not wear it in public. The offence requires "in public", which includes social media posts anyone can see.

Other Criminal Code changes relevant to visitors are summarised in the new 2026 Criminal Code for tourists. If you are taken to a police station, read the rights of foreigners detained by police, and the Bali government's list of duties is in rules for tourists in Bali 2026 and on the Bali rules page.

Quick answers

What about history books or a thesis on communism?
Article 188(6) says academic study is not punished. Reading a book in your villa is not a problem.

Can a tourist be deported for this?
Article 75 of Law 6/2011 lets immigration deport foreigners deemed not to obey the law. No deportation specifically over a hammer-and-sickle shirt had been found as of 28 October 2026.

Is a red star without the hammer and sickle banned too?
No recorded case involves a red star alone. Reports so far have been triggered by the hammer and sickle image.