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Denpasar, 16 Sept. (AKI / The Jakarta Post) – An anti-pornography bill which is before the Indonesian Parliament may hurt tourism on the island of Bali, some officials have claimed.
The bill, currently in draft form in the House of Representatives, defines pornography as acts that incite sexual desire.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country and militant Islamic groups have taken a strong stance against pornography and prostitution in the country since the fall of former President Suharto in 1998.
The controversial legislation defines pornography as sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative messages.
But some say the legislation could go as far as jailing people for kissing in public.
Experts see the bill as contentious, because traditional dress in Bali and the sparse clothing and swimwear worn by tourists, could be viewed as pornographic under the legislation.
“The island’s tourism will clearly suffer should the house pass the bill,” said Ngurah Wijaya, head of the Bali Tourism Board.
He said the board, an independent private organisation comprising nine organisations on the island, was not as concerned with potential commercial losses as with the possible cultural degradation stemming from the bill.
“This country has hundreds of cultural values. It would be boring to equalise all these cultures under a single definition,” Wijaya said.
Gede Nurjaya, head of the Bali Tourism Agency, said the passage of the bill would put Bali’s tourism industry under threat of a possible violent conflict.
He expressed concern there would be clashes with parties who had vested interests in the passing of the bill.
In 2006, when the bill was first proposed, a hard-line Islamic group called the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) issued a legal summons to then governor Made Dewa Beratha, a vocal opponent of the bill, following the latter’s threat to secede from Indonesia if the bill was passed.
The meeting never took place but in a series of interviews MMI official Fauzan Al Anshori said, “How about if we just blow it all up?” a clear reference to the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings that killed more than 230 people, most of whom were foreigners.
Nurjaya said the island’s tourism industry would suffer immensely if a violent conflict took place.
“In that case, I really don’t know what we can do,” he said.
Proponents of the bill claim the draft does not aim to regulate culture or dress codes, but simply to define pornography in pursuance of a more “civilised” country.
Bagus Sudibya, a tourism expert, acknowledged the moral stance behind the bill’s inception, but warned against hidden agendas in the process to pass it into law.
Bagus said the bill should focus on defining explicit pornography designed to arouse sexual desire or exploit women, and not condemn artwork depicting nudity.
“Many of Bali’s trademark attractions are in close connection with its arts, which occasionally depicts women in the nude,” he said.
Last Friday, an Indonesian Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party said the anti-pornography bill could be a “Ramadan present” for Muslims.
The draft bill has been before the Parliament for three years and there is speculation that it may be passed in a few weeks.
Yeah that’s a great idea. Take a repressed muslim society and make it even more repressed. That will fix everything…
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