, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 03/26/2006 8:53 AM | Life
Well, everyone else seems to be sticking in their two pence worth vis vis the proposed antiporn bill, so I guess I'll chip in with a few ill-informed words of wisdom while the issue is still hot (and horny). The whole antiporn legislation currently remains up in the air as the public's aspirations are voiced and various demonstrations, for and against, take to the streets.
It now seems that the bill's sponsors may back down on the more contentious and ambiguous socially repressive clauses of the bill and concentrate on the dissemination of pornographic images through the media (magazines, Internet, DVDs, etc). However, don't hold your breath over our brave politicians' intention to pull back from the Sharia Brink.But hang on a second, pornographic magazines, movies, etc, are already illegal in Indonesia, are they not? Would that not make this whole charade a complete waste of time? Surely, as per usual here, law enforcement, as opposed to the law itself, is the deficient element in the equation. Just to sidetrack for a moment here, surely a politician's job is to fix the economy and try to generate a few jobs; as well as improve things such as health care and education, or so it seems to me, a pinko, Fox News-baiting lefty. This porn legislation is attempting to infringe upon areas of personal choice that, in a democracy, are no politician's business. It would be better to try and fix the country's infrastructure which, according to a recent global competitiveness report, is crumbling around us. According to an independently sponsored survey of 12 Southeast Asian countries, including such relative basket cases as Laos and Cambodia, Indonesia ranks 11th in its electrification ratio, 12th in its fixed phone line connections and 7th out of 11 in access to proper sanitation. Only 12 percent of water distribution companies are in good condition since the Asian financial crisis, and largely thanks to this country's investor-unfriendly legal system, investment has dropped from around US$8 billion to around $2 billion a year. Meanwhile, turnpikes are collapsing, power cuts are frequent and Indonesia may soon find itself trailing in the wake of Vietnam and China.
However, all of the above facts have had to take a backseat to various politicians oft repeated assertion that the nation's morals are being corrupted by women's naked hair and the fact that ladies can walk outside their front doors after 7 p.m.
The Religious Affairs Minister recently claimed to be, ""confused"", over why the porn bill issue has been supposedly sidetracked into the issue of women's rights. Clearly though, it is women who will suffer under the kind of religious patriarchy that is being proposed. Women are the ones who will be hassled, victimized and accused of being prostitutes by the kind of Sharia-like police and moral busybodies, who will take it upon themselves to enforce such a law. To liberals across the country, the cure looks worse than the disease.
The Balinese turned the whole argument around in an interesting way recently by claiming that those who support the bill are actually opposing Indonesia's founding ideologies of pluralism and tolerance and are betraying the Republic. Bali's threats to secede from the country are probably a lot of hot air, but there is indeed tension between the ideals of Indonesian nationalism and the current direction that a majority religion is taking here. Founding President Sukarno seemed to implicitly understand this when he omitted all articles on Islamic law from the 1945 Constitution. He knew that in a hugely diverse nation such as this, Indonesian Muslims could either have their country or their religious law, but not both. In the current political climate, post-Soeharto reformist politics seem to be taking a backseat as these two forces clash again. The Golkar and PDI-P parties, once deadly enemies, now find themselves in an unlikely secular alliance against the forces of religious conservatism, which seems to have found a somewhat sympathetic ear in the president.
Okay, so bikinis, women missing the last bus home and young couples having a furtive kiss and a cuddle on a park bench shouldn't be criminalized. Many of us can agree on that. On the other hand, children should be protected of course. The recent scandal of 70s British Glam rocker Gary Glitter and his, ""kiddie fiddling"", antics in Vietnam are a case in point. The Do You Wanna Be in My Gang singer, looking spookily like Ho Chi Minh in court with his pointy beard and glasses, was probably rightfully convicted on pedophilia charges recently. I had imagined him in his sequined shoulder pads, platform heels and eyeliner hanging out at some seedy disco in Hanoi. A truly surreal image. The innocence of children is something to be valued in society and they seem to be sexualized at younger and younger ages these days.
Conversely, the prevalence of grown adults in Sharia-style societies who do not know their backsides from their elbows is perhaps equally disturbing. On the website Islam Online, a site supervised by the prominent (and controversial) Qatar-based cleric, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, oral sex is described as a disgusting Western practice resulting from Westerners' terrible habit of, ""stripping naked during sexual intercourse"". In addition, masturbation apparently causes, ""disruption of the digestive system, inflammation of the testicles, damage to the spine, the place from which sperm originates and a weakening of the cerebral glands"". Hmmm, scientific stuff to be sure. Arguably, such adult ignorance about sexual matters is just as bad as a ubiquity of porn, especially when overpopulation and AIDS are stalking the planet. Back to our old mate Al-Qaradawi though. According to him, ""Islam strictly forbids the waste of seminal fluid"". Where is the love, Mr. Al-Qaradawi, that's what I want to know?
Is this kind of thing in store for Indonesia? I guess the country could follow in the Shia tradition of temporary marriages which effectively, and rather hypocritically, legalizes prostitution. On the other hand, the Sunni tradition, especially that influenced by Saudi Wahabism, is much more ascetic and tends to frown upon anything at all that could be considered remotely pleasurable. Is this really desirable in a country renowned for its joyous fertility and easygoing character? Whatever ... I'm off to iron my bikini. See you on the beach.
-- Simon Pitchforth
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