Pornography Bill Stirs Controversy in Indonesia

Pornography Bill Stirs Controversy in Indonesia
Dorian Merina | 29 Sep 2008
World Politics Review

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Close to 16 million Indonesians are expected to leave the country's cities this week in a mass exodus to their hometowns in order to celebrate Idul Fitri and the end of the Ramadan month. But this year, they will be hitting the roads as a broad national debate over a controversial anti-pornography bill continues to rage from the local communities of Bali to the streets of Jakarta.

Earlier this month, the government announced that it was close to passing legislation that would monitor not only media, but also behavior -- even conversation -- that is seen to violate "the normative values of society." At the time, Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of the conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), touted the bill's passage as imminent and promised it as a "Ramadan gift" to supporters. But as the month draws to a close, the bill remains stalled. Critics have demanded more deliberation and called the bill a political stunt by government officials who seek to garner support before next year's national elections.

Indonesia, as the world's most populous Muslim country, has long been known as a tolerant and pluralistic society. But following the end of Suharto's 32-year rule in 1998, violence -- including riots that targeted Jakarta's Chinese community and local power struggles between Christians and Muslims -- left nearly 1 million Indonesians displaced. In an attempt to govern this pluralistic nation where hundreds of different ethnic and linguistic groups span 17,000 islands, the state ceded a degree of regional autonomy to local governments in 2001.

But in recent years a more conservative interpretation of Islam has begun to take hold. When some areas passed Shariah-inspired bylaws, Jakarta resisted. As recently as August, the newly-appointed head of the Constitutional Court said the bylaws violated the constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. The current anti-pornography bill is the latest flashpoint between groups still struggling to define a long-simmering issue: the role of religion in society.

"We understand that this is a delicate issue," said Bahrul Hayat, Secretary General of Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs in an interview at his Jakarta office. "It is not a one day process." Hayat's ministry is one of the government bodies responsible for gathering public opinion and presenting recommendations to the president. So far, the legislation has received criticism from a range of sectors.

Many point to the bill's expansive definition of pornography -- which according to a recent draft includes any "sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative message" -- as problematic.

Others, especially among the country's Hindu population, see the bill as an effort to impinge on their cultural independence. Earlier this month in Bali, home to many of the country's Hindus, a rally drew 5,000 protesters to the local legislative building, where they called on the local government to reject the bill. Bali's Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that the bill should include pledges to preserve the country's diverse traditions."Failure to do so will give rise to a very complicated situation," he told the Jakarta Post.

In Jakarta, women's rights groups said that the bill unfairly targets women, and worry that it could be used by conservative groups to regulate their dress and activities. "They want to control the morality of the people," said Baby Jim Aditya, founder of Partisipasi Kemanusiaan, a group that works with Jakarta's prison population. Aditya, who also conducts sexual education courses in Jakarta's schools and prisons, said she worries that the bill will also affect her ability to speak to Indonesians about serious health threats, such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Apprehension also extends to Indonesia's minority population. Nia Gautama is a Chinese Indonesian, as well as Catholic in a country where 88 percent of the population is Muslim. While she agrees with certain limitations in the media and in artwork, she fears that the anti-pornography bill may be another way of driving Indonesia's various communities apart. Some in the Chinese community are still recovering from the trauma of the Jakarta riots in 1998, said Gautama, when mobs burned Chinese businesses and targeted Chinese women for assault and rape. What is needed now, she said, is more communication and respect among Indonesia's diverse communities.

It is a task that has consumed the nation since its founding. During his rule, Suharto banned public discussion about secularization, fearing that open dialogue would tear the country apart. Now, Indonesians are engaged in precisely that debate with the anti-pornography bill, with the violence of the past still fresh in the nation's collective memory.

Dorian Merina is a freelance journalist based in New York. He is currently in Indonesia on a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship.