Nationalism vs. Islamism in West Java election?

http://www.thejakartapost.com/node/166571

Ahmad Junaidi , Jakarta | Thu, 04/17/2008 11:17 AM | Opinion

Barack Obama's recent comments about small town working-class voters can be used to understand Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf's win in the West Java gubernatorial election.

The strong Democratic Party's U.S. presidential candidate stated: "It's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to... religion... as a way to explain their frustrations."

Indonesians, including the Sundanese -- the largest ethnic in West Java -- are now economically frustrated: Increasing prices of staple foods, kerosene shortages, long queues to buy cooking oil, high unemployment -- the list goes on.

Then, new faces -- Heryawan, nominated by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and Dede, a former action film star and legislator of the Muslim-based National Mandate Party -- offer the "audacity of hope".

In their television campaign, Heryawan and Dede use -- it's not clear whether they actually have permission to do so -- a picture of Obama and say: "It's time for the youth to lead."

Meanwhile, the grand old parties, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) came with old faces. Golkar supported Danny Setiawan, the incumbent West Java Governor, while PDI-P, chaired by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, endorsed retired general Agum Gumelar.

Unlike the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election in which the two parties managed to win Fauzi Bowo, they could not come up with a candidate in West Java.

The nationalist parties did not learn from their success in defeating PKS in the Banten gubernatorial election and Tangerang regent where Ratu Atut and Ismeth Iskandar were elected as governor and regent respectively.

Many cities in West Java such as Bandung, Bekasi and Bogor are strongholds of the PKS. Directly-elected Depok Mayor Nurmahmudi Ismail was the party's former president.

Regencies in the provinces, such as Indramayu, Tasikmalaya and Cianjur, have recently approved sharia-inspired bylaws --although some non-governmental organizations criticized the regulations for violating women's rights.

Peaceful demonstrations joined by hundreds, up to thousands of students and mosques activists who demanded the establishment of caliphs regularly took place in those cities.

The rallies' participants mostly were not aware of the bloody history of caliphs as stated in a new translated book Kebenaran yang Hilang (The Missing Truths) by slain Egyptian author Farag Fouda.

They ignore the facts that three of the four caliphs, Umar, Ustman and Ali were killed. The youth supporters do not know that the absence of control over political power -- check and balances -- had created chaos in the succession in their favorite political system.

The fundamentalists do not believe vox populi, vox dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God), instead they prefer vox ulema, vox dei.

The West Java floating masses are surely not aware of the exclusive ideology of PKS. The party's cadres cleverly do not wear religious clothing, and instead promote anti-corruption policies.

The recent arrest of Al Amin Nasution of the United Development Party (PPP) -- which supported Agum Gumelar -- could be seen as evidence that the behavior of the New Order parties under the corrupt regime of Soeharto can still be found.

The Corruption Eradication Commission caught Al Amin red-handed for bribery at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta. Media reported the commission also nabbed a prostitute with the legislator.

The public still clearly remembers the Golkar legislator who was caught literally naked in a sex video with a dangdut singer last year. Yahya Zaini then resigned as a member of the House of Representatives.

The current media blow up on padlocked masseuses may also motivate voters to chose candidates espousing better morals: Heryawan and Dede.

If it was a soccer game, Danny (Golkar) and Agum (PDI) would be badly injured before entering the soccer field to face young and energized players. Their faces would be covered with s---t thrown by the spectators.

Many of the "floating masses" are those who were described in a book titled Who Speaks for Islam?, co-authored by John L. Esposito -- a growing number of Muslims who love democracy, reject violence but hate secularism. Muslims who love American food and blue jeans, but hate corrupt and hypocrite candidates, especially nominees from the two pillars of the New Order regime: Golkar and the military.

The West Java election will probably affect the presidential elections next year. Whoever the candidate supported by PKS is, he -- the party dislikes the idea of a female president -- would have more of a chance to win the race. And the president is expected to share his power with the party and acted as a devout Muslim.

Many more sharia-inspired bylaws would be approved by the regional councils and the much-opposed anti-pornography bill would be passed into law. The initiatives would not necessarily come from PKS cadres as many opportunist legislators, mostly from the Golkar party, support the bylaws, believing them to be a quick way to lure back voters.

In the future, more dangdut singers, not only Inul Daratista and Dewi Persik, could be banned because of their erotic dancing, and more masseuses could be padlocked. Again, it should not be blamed on PKS cadres.

The writer is a journalist at The Jakarta Post. He can be reached at junaidi@thejakartapost.com

Dumb and dangerous

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/04/11/editorial-dumb-and-dangerous.html

Editorial:

Fri, 04/11/2008 12:32 PM | Opinion

The first thought that came to mind when the government said it planned to block Internet sites that host the anti-Islam documentary Fitna was: What a dumb idea. Those who understand how the Internet works know full well that you cannot censor this medium, unlike television, radio and newspapers. You can block particular sites, but those who look hard enough can find Fitna, the hate documentary produced by a Dutch politician, elsewhere in the ever-expanding virtual world.

Sure enough, in the past few days, those trying to access YouTube from Indonesia found the site was no longer accessible.

YouTube, one of the most popular file-sharing communities on the Internet, hosts the film. The government gave it a few days notice in demanding the removal of the film from YouTube and other similar file-sharing sites. When this demand went largely ignored, Indonesia-based ISPs, at the behest of the government, started blocking access to YouTube and other sites on Wednesday.

Voila, the Indonesian government makes its first foray into censoring the Internet. What a futile effort. What it has done is not quite censoring, for Fitna can be still found on numerous other websites and blogs. Instead, the government has deprived Indonesians access to one of the world's most popular file-sharing communities. This is like the Indonesian expression, "to catch a rat, you burn down the entire rice barn. The rat escapes, and you are left with a razed barn".

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the latest wonders of the Internet. It allows people around the globe to share videos of all kinds. Yes, there are the hate documentaries, far worse than Fitna, posted there.

But by and large, this file-sharing community does more good than harm. Indonesian artists seeking to penetrate the global film industry have a chance to break the mold through this medium. Talents that otherwise would have been ignored can now find space, and perhaps their big break, through YouTube.

Education, the dissemination of information and exchange of cultural products are just some of the areas that benefit tremendously from sites like YouTube.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must have received some frighteningly dumb advice when he, at a press conference, demanded that YouTube remove Fitna from its site. There was no way YouTube would have complied, and besides, now that the site is blocked, people can still get hold of the film.

It is not clear who the President was trying to appease. The religious conservatives? They too are among the prime beneficiaries of YouTube. What the President has done is to alienate millions of Indonesians, particularly the young generation, who find file-sharing communities on the Internet not only useful but an indispensable part of their lives. If Barack Obama is appealing to the young Internet generation to vote in this year's presidential election in the United States, Yudhoyono seems to be doing exactly the opposite.

Those dumb advisers could not have been completely ignorant of the ineffectiveness of Internet censorship. The fact that they went ahead, and the President took their advice, sends a disturbing sign that they are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mindset that takes us a decade back to the era of censorship.

We see the signs in the present administration's efforts to restore some form of control over the media. The plan to review the 1999 Press Law, the latest draft of the Criminal Code that reinstates restrictions on freedom of expression and the new law on the cybermedia with its censorship clauses all point to an administration ever eager to give itself some control over what society reads, listens to and views.

Indonesia's commitment to freedom of expression and the right to information, both of which are guaranteed in the Constitution, are now being put in doubt. When Indonesia hosts the next Global Inter-Media Dialogue in Bali, President Yudhoyono will have to answer a lot of questions about his own personal commitment to guaranteeing freedom of expression in Indonesia.

Hypocrisy all around

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/04/12/hypocrisy-all-around.html

Sat, 04/12/2008 11:17 AM | Opinion

A bid by the Batu administration in East Java to curb prostitution by asking masseuses to wear a padlock on their pants not only serves as an insult to women but most of all exposes our hypocrisy.

Requiring masseuses to wear a padlock would not curb prostitution or uphold public morality; it would only make our country an international laughingstock.

We share the opinion of our minister for women's empowerment, Meutia Hatta Swasono, that this odd practice insults women and unfairly portrays masseuses as prostitutes.

If the aim of the policy is to prevent prostitution and promote tourism, as reported by the media, then this surely is the wrong way to go about pursuing these goals.

However, we disagree with Minister Meutia's proposal to improve monitoring of massage parlors by installing CCTV cameras. CCTV inside massage parlors? If that happened, no one would visit them.

There must be a better way to supervise massage parlors and curb prostitution, besides requiring masseuses to wear padlocked pants or installing CCTV cameras.

To curb prostitution, we must first understand and accept the problem.

First, it's impossible to eliminate prostitution simply because there is always a demand, and even a growing demand, and supply.

However, we act as if we can eliminate the sex industry. We declare prostitution illegal and our law enforcers close down some places of prostitution and round up streetwalkers.

Yet, prostitution is still here and thriving in places like Jakarta and Bali. There are still many locations, including massage parlors, offering sexual services.

Indonesia has even earned the reputation as one of the best countries in the region for sex tourism. It is an unwanted recognition, yet we cannot deny that many people do come to Indonesia for that purpose.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla himself once suggested the country promote the women of Puncak, West Java, to attract tourists from the Middle East.

However, the biggest consumers of the prostitution industry here are Indonesians. That is why most major cities in the country have illegal red-light districts. Ask any taxi driver and they will know exactly where to go.

We are always in a state of denial. We like to portray ourselves as a religious society, and we don't want to believe that red-light districts exist in the country or that the number of commercial sex workers is increasing. We are hypocrites.

There is also a big question that should be answered. How do the operators of prostitution dens and pimps survive the raids by law enforcers and the sweeps by overzealous religious groups.

Some would say that to survive in the industry, you have to "cooperate" with the law enforcers and the religious groups, who often act as protection rings. Money, of course, is key to this cooperation.

The picture is bleak and we must recognize this if we want to address the problem. We cannot eliminate prostitution, at the same time we cannot legalize it because it is still too sensitive an issue. At the least, then, me must regulate it.

Countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore all treat prostitution as illegal but they recognize and regulate the industry.

Regulation is especially necessary to protect sex workers from exploitation and denial of their rights, and also to prevent the spread of diseases and HIV/AIDS. Also, the government can impose hefty taxes on businesses or people offering sexual services for money.

But regulating the sex business requires courage and leadership. It's difficult, but possible. We have precedence for this. Former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, defying protests from various quarters, established an official red-light district in Kramat Tunggak, North Jakarta. The area is now occupied by an Islamic center.

Ali Sadikin is to this day the only head of local government who has correctly addressed the issue of prostitution. Now with decentralization, local heads of government have greater say in their local affairs, and therefore they have a greater opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Ali Sadikin.

Let's hope heads of local governments are not only zealous about drafting and imposing sharia-inspired bylaws, but also dare to regulate, and not negate, the sex business.