And so it begins

[SG]

In the new issue of Time

Indonesia watched its new anti-pornography law leap into action last weekend, as police raided a Jakarta nightclub and arrested three employees. The officers, according to the Kompas daily, detained three erotic dancers in the raid — the first arrests based on the controversial law since it passed last week by an overwhelming majority in Parliament. The women now face up to 10 years in prison.

and

Four provinces with sizeable non-Muslim populations — Bali, Yogyakarta, Papua and North Sulawesi — have already rejected the law and said it will not be enforced in their regions. It remains to be seen how and if that will be tolerated by Jakarta. Major protests are planned for this month in Bali, where the governor has been a vocal opponent of the law and pledged that it will not be implemented. Many Balinese are now calling for greater autonomy and say dire consequences lie ahead if their demands are not met. "There is even a possibility that Bali will ask to separate from Indonesia," says Rudolf Dethu, a Balinese who has helped organize protests against the law. "It's that serious."

[BaliLife]

Arresting erotic dancers? Half of the kids in the country are living in poverty and these gimpy pricks are raiding nightclubs and arresting dancers? You'd find more intelligence in stale horse smegma.

Ct

[SG]

Half of the kids in the country are living in poverty and these gimpy pricks are raiding nightclubs and arresting dancers?

They may be poor but they will be morally pure.

There was, I think, a PJ O'Rourke thing I read once. He'd arrived in some shithole in Peru and it was deserted. He asked where everyone was. They are in church praying. Well, he said, looking around him, clearly it doesn't work.

But, said the guide, the country and the church needs them to think that it might work one day.

[BaliLife]

very true..

the other thing i think is at play in this country among the more conservative is an absolute arab complex.. they look around them and don't feel the 'purity of islam' is evident enough.. they really wish they were arabs so they could feel like they wee 'real muslims'.. it's pretty sad.. they obviously can't achieve that, so what are they going to try and do? turn the country into saudi arabia i guess (without the money and investment).. basically take the worst of the middle east and implement it here without taking any of the great things that have been achieved in the mid east in the last 2 decades..

islam has killed so many once great cultures.. iranian culture, javanese culture to name just a few.. kind of like the pine beetle moving through once great forests :(

??? ??? ???? ?????? ? ??? ?? ???? ?????????? ?? ???? ?? ?????..

ct

[Roy]

The Time article is based on a Kompas article, and Time should know better how to follow journalistic ethics. The “arrests” were symbolic, and the women don’t face 10 years in jail, as the law has not yet been ratified, nor have administrative guidelines (needed by the police and the courts to enforce the law) been issued. It’s hype journalism, or in other words, BS. The “law” is still under judicial review.

Also, the article almost a full month old and I haven’t read of any other “arrests” or raids…have you?

On the other hand, this article in today’s Jakarta Post is interesting, although entirely unrelated except for this passage…

“Not all foreign nationals have good intentions,” he said. “Some smuggle drugs and others become strippers.”

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...99-papers.html

[SG]

The “law” is still under judicial review

Regardless of judicial review and administrative guidelines the law is effective as of Saturday automatically . I actually know the journalist who wrote it (it wasn't from Kompass), and one one of those quoted, fairly well, but I agree it's a month old which I missed but I'm told from a very good source a club was raided in the weekend in Jakarta pursuant to the law. I'll pass on more as I have it.

That the arrests were symbolic, and made before ratification, is even worse IMO. So much for no intent to enforce it.

[Roy]

We’ll see, but personally I feel that this is all over reaction. Moreover, we’ve already hashed this all out pretty much on both the Pornography Law string, and also on the Yoga banned string.

Incidentally, the periodic raiding of night clubs in Jakarta, for whatever reason, has been a favorite “pastime” of cops, and thugs who say they represent conservative Islam for many, many years. Typically this is more common during the Ramadan period, but not exclusively.

NOW…when I read an article that an art exhibition or museum was raided, or an artist’s studio was raided, or a bikini clad tourist pulled off a Bali beach…then I’ll get concerned.

BTW…do you have Indovision? The swimwear and lingerie segments of the Fashion Channel are still “alive and well” and I haven’t seen any changes in the cinetrons, or the ads that support them either.

[milan]

I guess we'll have to wait and see for this law to be implemented but within its legal boundary I hope and not be used by the extremists to witch-hunt anybody they personally see fit, which would be a danger imho.

[Bert Vierstra]

If the "erotic dancers" are what they are in Bali, the same traveling "phenomena", also to the North where I had the "pleasure" of seeing them, go ahead and arrest them all.

Its disgusting, and denigrating. :evil:

[BaliLife]

well that's a nice viewpoint to have bert.. did someone stick a gun to your head and make you go and watch them? i'm guessing not..

no, what's disgusting is putting any resources towards enforcing this bill at all.. and what's even more disgusting is putting resources towards enforcing a religious grand-standing bill when kids are starving on the street..

i say to them.. "feed your people you <MOD EDIT> then worry about your moral high ground and how to become saudi # 2"..

ct