Tom Pepinsky

Category: Current Affairs

  • Condoleezza Rice

    Condoleezza Rice is in Jakarta, she arrived here yesterday and she’s staying through today and perhaps tomorrow.  She’s here to meet with SBY and some ministers.  Funny story–I didn’t know she was going to be here until I watched BBC last night and they discussed it.  She arrived at 1:00.  At 11:30 I was meeting with a current Minister in SBY’s Cabinet, and he had to cut short our discussion at 12:15 because he had an appointment at 1:00 ("ada janji pada jam satu").  Later on BBC I saw this same Minister welcoming Ms. Rice to Jakarta.

    Anyway, Ms. Rice is here playing up America’s cooperation with Indonesia in anti-terrorism and anti-piracy measures.  (Right now the American and Indonesian navies are conducting joint exercises.)  She also went on at length about the natural kinship between Indonesia and America, two multi-cultural democracies with long histories of tolerance and acceptance of diversity.  I couldn’t agree with her more on this.  She also visited an Islamic day school (madrasah) here, and related to reporters how wonderful she thought the students were and how positive the atmosphere was.  I certainly did enjoy seeing pictures of little girls in jilbabs waving both the Indonesian and American flag as Ms. Rice walked into their school.  In Indonesia, a madrasah is a state-run Islamic day school that follows the government’s curriculum.  A pesantren is a private Islamic boarding school that does not necessarily follow the government’s curriculum.  This may be a bit confusing, for a madrasah in Pakistan is what corresponds to a pesantren here.

    It turns out that the American government gives funding for these madrasahs.  What a great policy!  JM and I have been advocating this since we arrived in Indonesia in 2004–to create strong moderate Islamic societies, you must start with the kids.  I also think that the US should help to fund the construction of mosques in poor neighborhoods.  Now, I’ve had very liberal Indonesian Muslim friends tell me that these policies are counterproductive because they run the risk of "shaming" Muslims, but I disagree.

    In other news, the American government has a plan to start an Indonesian version of Sesame Street.  I am not making this up.  They have allocated a bunch of money towards this, and they are looking for employees.  So if you or someone you know has experience with mass media, Bahasa Indonesia, and English, I know who to contact to hook you up.

  • 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.