Tom Pepinsky

Category: Current Affairs

  • Papuan Election, Pornography

    The elections in the provinces of Papua and Irjabar seem to have gone well, with no allegations of corruption or money politics making it to the news sources that I read.  Of course, some folks are still upset that the government decided to create the new province at all, and reject any elections as illegitimate, but they seem not to have a very strong voice.

    One thing that’s been in the news these days–and which has a direct impact on Papua–is the Indonesian government’s proposed anti-pornography bill.  The rather strong Islamic opposition party known as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera) is a big sponsor of this bill.  We should note that while PKS is an Islamic party, it is not an Islamist party–it has no plans to adopt sharia law or anything like that, it just counts on pious Muslims for its support.  Its biggest campaign promises are always to cut down on corruption and to emphasize morality in governance, similar to Hamas in Palestine but without the commitment to annihilate Israel.  Of course, many Christians in Indonesia fear that PKS would try to introduce sharia if it ever held the presidency and a majority in the legislature, but my own view is that is a losing proposition.

    The pornography bill, anyway, is supposed to regulate the spread of immorality in culture and the media.  It tries to define pornografi (pornographic images) and pornoaksi (pornographic actions) as two separate things that it will fight against.  The gist of the opposition is that most people are satisfied with existing anti-pornography regulations, and religious and cultural minorities feel that the bill may infringe on traditional cultures.  For example, will Balinese people still be allowed to bathe in rivers?  Will Papuans be allowed to wear their traditional dress (link not safe for work)?  Will traditional religious ceremonies with sexual undertones be outlawed?  Many protestors point out that the proposed bill makes no provisions to protect these minorities.  Another group of protestors believe that the anti-pornography and pornoaksi bill will repress women’s rights–one Catholic Indonesian friend referred to it as the "Arabization of Indonesia."  The proposed bill, in its first draft, made it a crime punishable by fines for Indonesian women to wear clothes that reveal legs, midriffs, and shoulders.  It’s not clear what the new version of the bill includes.

    Here’s a quote from Din Syamsuddin, a proponent of the bill: "We are concerned by the moral
    liberalization that will lead the nation to the brink of collapse,
    unless it is stopped as soon as possible."      Seems a bit of a stretch to consider that Indonesia could fall apart because of nudity in the arts and bare midriffs.  Watch this space for updates as negotiations about the bill continue.

  • Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

    My meeting at the US Embassy was very interesting indeed.  The embassy is no more secure than the one in Kuala Lumpur, although it is a LOT bigger.  The USAID compound within the embassy along is probably the size of the entire embassy in Kuala Lumpur.  Anyway, when you arrive you have to turn off your phone and leave it at the front desk, along with any sort of electronic devices like an Ipod or a laptop.  That’s annoying.  I accidentally left my notebook in my laptop bag at the front counter, and they had to send a special runner to the security checkpoint to get it.  What a pain.  Most of the people who work in the embassy are actually Indonesians with security clearance.  Everyone was extremely nice, even the five dozen guards with submachine guns and an APC (really) parked on the street in front of the embassy.  The head guard was the first Indonesian I ever met who was clearly Portuguese…his name was Raoul Endarnho, and his last name seems to be a Portuguese version of what looks to be a Timorese root (endar).  Most people with Portuguese last names in Indonesia are Timorese, but most of them live in East Timor, the country that broke off from Indonesia in 1999 after 25 years of Indonesian colonial rule.

    So what I discussed with USAID officials yesterday was the progress of economic reforms in Indonesia since the fall of Soeharto in 1998.  My dissertation focuses on events leading up to Soeharto’s resignation, but I’m also interested in post-Soeharto economic reforms for another project.  The USAID folks claim that there were hardly any real reforms at all in areas like corporate governance, macroeconomic management, and political corruption before the election of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2004.  But now, they say that the changes are real, and they heartily support his efforts to raise gasoline and electricity prices, to implement sensible macro policies, and to reform Indonesia’s rampantly corrupt business/politics nexus.  They see signs of success.

    Which is funny because a number of other people that I’ve met are far less sanguine about reforms.  Many people talk about reforms in name that have not been matched by reforms on the ground.  Lots of corrupt officials get hauled before the courts, but very few are convicted, and the ones who are happen to be the most outrageously corrupt ones with strong Soeharto connections.  I wonder how much it is the US government’s policy to be positive or optimistic at all times.  I guess I’ll have to see what other folks think about these reforms.