INDONESIA: Holy Ire at Cartoons Shifts to Soft Porn

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fabio Scarpello

JAKARTA , Feb 15 2006 (IPS) - As the controversy over newspaper caricatures of Prophet Mohammad simmers, religious orthodoxy in this country has a new issue to get hot and bothered about – a local edition of ‘Playboy’ magazine set to be launched in March.

Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, joined the rest of the Islamic world in protesting against the blasphemous caricatures of the prophet, first published in a Danish newspaper last September and reproduced more recently across the world.

Although the Danish publication was condemned by the ulama (religious leaders), to their credit, they also appealed for calm and street protests, last week, rarely strayed beyond flag-burning in some of the urban centres of this sprawling archipelago.

Protesters in Surabaya, east Java, demonstrated outside the offices of the ‘Gloria’ magazine after it reproduced three of the cartoons, last week. Its editor, David da Silva was since sacked by the magazine’s management and placed under police investigation.

Police have also proceeded against the chief editor of the ‘Peta’ tabloid, Imam Tri Karso Hadi, for reproducing one of the offending cartoons.

But the ulama’s attention has shifted to another issue that also stretches the freedom of the press to its limits – the planned launch, of an Indonesian edition of the lad’s magazine, ‘Playboy’.

”Our concern is that this new media will plunge our nation further into a moral crisis because it will make women’s private parts easily displayed to the public, including underage children,” Indonesian Mujahidin (holy warrior) Council representative Fauzan Al-Anshari was quoted saying.

Irfan Awwas, chairman of the hardline council, was even more forceful: “It will be disastrous for Indonesia. The publication of Playboy as we know it will further destroy the nation’s morality.”

Founded by Hugh Marston Hefner in 1953, the U.S. edition enjoys a circulation of over three million copies and is appreciated as much for its legendary females in the buff, as for its editorial content.

Interviews with personalities like Fidel Castro and John Lennon have enhanced the image of the magazine that is now published in 20 countries with a combined worldwide circulation reaching 4.5 million.

Nudes will not be permitted in the local version nor will Indonesian beauties like Tia Lestari and Victoria Sianipar who graced European editions of the magazine, in the recent past, figure.

Ponti Carrolus, director of ‘PT Velvet Silver Media’, which holds the Indonesian licence from the U.S.-based magazine, said at a news conference in January that ‘Playboy Indonesia’ would not publish its famous nude pictures. ”It will have a greater emphasis on the literary qualities,” he promised.

But protestations that Playboy Indonesia will be a watered-down version of the original publication or that it will carry more intellectual content have not impressed the ulama.

”Pornography, regardless of how it is being disguised, will only corrupt youth morals and bring catastrophes such as a rise in rape and sexual harassment,” Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, an organisation that claims a 40 million-strong following.

Din Syamsuddin, leader of the country’s second largest moderate Muslim organisation, the Muhammadiyah, while admitting to having had a ”look at the magazine while studying in the U.S. many years ago”, vowed to keep fighting against its publication in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, the toned down version of Playboy will join other titles that have debuted since a new era of free speech was ushered in with the downfall of dictatorial Suharto regime in 1998.

Already other ‘soft porn’ international magazines such as ‘FHM’ and ‘Maxim’ have carved out a share of market for periodicals and hold their own against raunchier Indonesians periodicals such as ‘Matra’ and ‘Popular’ on the racks of regular shops and bookstores.

Even more lurid Indonesian tabloids are available at bus stations and traffic intersections with the vendors taking care to conceal them under the broadsheets to avoid offending respectable citizens.

Among the titles that have raised eyebrows are ‘Boss’ and ‘Expose’, and to a lesser extent, Jakarta’s ‘Pos Kota’ and ‘Lampu Merah’. The coarse content of these publications includes smutty stories of rape, prostitution, domestic violence and sexual abuse, but seem to have escaped the wrath of the ulama.

The tabloids sell at around Rupiah 2,000 (21 US cents) per copy and reach a much larger swathe of the population than Playboy, which is expected to sell via subscription and through a few selected bookstores, at a hefty Rupiah 50,000 (5.5 dollars) each.

In Indonesia, pornography is not clearly defined but is broadly prohibited under the criminal code as ‘anything that offends public decency, is against the common morals or arouses sexual desire among the young’. Those found guilty of such a crime risk up to 32 months in jail.

A new pornography bill is currently being discussed in parliament and clearer definitions as to what is pornographic and what is not, are expected soon.