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Shari’a proponents push for morality laws in Indonesia

The Anti Pornography Bill in Indonesia, which could have seen public displays of affection, such as kissing, outlawed, was shelved recently but the Bill is far from defeated and the push for conservative morality laws continues. Lauren Farrow reports.

Sastra wangi or ‘fragrant writing’ is controversial even by Western standards. Its explicit content which includes genital mutilation, lesbian affairs, eroticism and sexual exploration, has pushed the boundaries in Indonesia at a time when the relationship between religious conservatism and sexual exploration is becoming increasingly volatile.

Lead primarily by women, this literary movement delves into the ideas of sexual liberation. Author Dewi Lestari rejected sexual mores in her book Supernova and sold over 100,000 copies. An incredible feat considering works of fiction by large publishing companies rarely exceed 30,000 in their first print run.

The popularity of ‘sastra wangi’ is an interesting example of the current social polarisation between sex and religion in Indonesia, says Indonesian author Julia Suryakusuma.

“There is a greater openness on one hand about sexuality,” explains Suryakusuma. “On the other hand the intolerance towards it is also become greater. So that’s why sexual politics is becoming more and more acute. The battle is on.”

Suryakusuma writes a column in the Jakarta Post which often tackles religion and morality. She explores the idea of sex in a different way to ‘fragrant’ writers, instead focussing on its relationship to politics. Suryakusuma, a feminist and rebel, constantly grapples with her mother and brother’s adherence to the fundamental principles of Islam. Part of the continuum, she says of hardline Islam, is spearheading the move towards sexual conservatism.

This shift is particularly apparent in the recent Anti-Pornography Bill, which Suryakusuma views as an attempt by political Islam to gain ascendency. The legislation has been shelved at present but the issue is by no means dead. If left in its present form it would encompass everything from pornography to public displays of affection. It moves beyond censorship into the realm of morality, says Suryakusuma, and if passed, women face the prospect of being forced to cover up entirely.

Suryakusama lives in an apartment complex bordering on Tangerang, a satellite city of Jakarta. Here laws relating to dress have already been implemented. “I must say that I don’t feel comfortable walking in my neighbourhood. I’ve been walking in shorts and tank tops for years but now because of the boundaries of my complex…it’s just very uncomfortable…that is already an infringement of my freedom.”

Women’s dress is a visually obvious symbol and therefore an easy target argues Suryakusuma. “Women are being targeted because there is a crisis in morality and the threat is seen to come from the West and liberal democracy. And part of this liberalism is also manifested in the way that women dress.”

Singling out women is a global phenomenon says Suryakusuma, whose book Sex, Power and Nation, discusses how women are seen as the embodiment of moral values. “It’s not just in Indonesia. It’s also the case in Bosnia. Ethnic cleansing was done by raping the women and that was the way in Indonesia to quell rebellion in the separatists women in Aceh, in Papua, in East Timor...if you denigrate the women that means you are denigrating the whole society.”

Suryakusuma joins the thousands of other women who protested the proposed Bill on International Women’s Day this year, believing it places their liberties at stake. But artists are also standing in the firing line.

Late last year Indonesian artist Agus Suwage launched his Pinkswing Park exhibition at Jakarta’s International Biennale. The work comprises a swing installation surrounded by three large walls of digitally enhanced photographs showing a young man and woman frolicking naked in an Adam and Eve type setting. The work sparked such intense controversy it was immediately shut down. A taste of what may lie ahead with the criminalising of pornographic material in the proposed bill.

Image: Pinkswing by Agus Suwage and Davy Linggar

This is a prospect Suryakusuma thinks is appalling. “Art in Indonesia is full of naked bodies- it’s sexual, it’s sensual, and it’s erotic. Our pre-Islamic art is very sexual and that’s because in art there is no dichotomising between sex and spirituality they are just two sides of the same coin. And in a lot of ancient cultures, you have these pagan symbols of people with big breasts…and that’s part of our culture as well and it’s really scary what the affect [the Bill] will have on the art if it is passed.”

University art student, Fitriani DK believes artistic and sexual expression is already being stifled and the proposed Bill is just a way of controlling individual freedom and ensuring Indonesia remains a strong adherent to Eastern traditions and customs.

Fitriani says the way the bill is constructed is ambiguous, leaving sentiment towards it polarised and confused. “Everyone draws a different meaning from the bill in accordance with their own views…for example in Article 26 it states that everyone is prohibited to be intentionally naked in public…and so what about the many houses on the riverbanks, where the residents use the river in which to bathe? Are those that wash in the river naked, also going to be charged under this law and made to pay the 100-500 million Ruppiah (AUS$14,000-70,000) fine?”

Professor of Asian Law at the University of Melbourne, Tim Lindsey also says the proposed bill is extraordinarily broad, and its boundaries ill defined.

“It’s a pretext,” he says. “It’s an excuse for highly moral activity to restrict women and their access to public space.” As a practicing Muslim, he stresses however, the hardline Shari’a law reflected in the bill is just one interpretation of Islam. “It’s completely up to human interpretation…Very few could agree on the content of Shari’a law,” he explains. But hardline “is not the interpretation most Indonesian’s have.”

Shari’a, which literally means ‘path’ or ‘path to water,’ refers to the legal framework within which aspects of public and private life are regulated by Muslim principles and jurisprudence.

Almost 90 per cent of Indonesia’s population are Muslim, the remaining ten per cent are Christians, Hindus and Buddhists. As the most populous Muslim- majority nation in the world, Islamic law is a politically sensitive issue in Indonesia says Lindsey, with the government unwilling to isolate the Muslim vote.

Both Julia Suryakusama and Professor Lindsey point to the autonomous region of Aceh, which since 1999 has been the only jurisdiction in Indonesia to apply Islamic law in full. The International Crisis Group (ICG) in Jakarta have been researching the effects of this.

The Project Director of the ICG in South East Asia, Sidney Jones says discrimination against women has been just one outcome. She describes how three women were seized without warning, arrested, interrogated and forced to sign statements of guilt, simply for not wearing religious dress.

Public outrage spawned from the incident “because they were actually inside the hotel at the time. They weren’t even out on the street when the arrests took place,” says Jones.

Jones is unsure of the motivations behind the arrests. “They may have been just looking for an example that no-one is immune from abiding by these regulations, but it was completely out of balance for undertaking this raid the way that they did. Basically humiliated those involved.”

Aceh has a turbulent history, marked by rebellion, conflict and human rights violations. Originally the move towards Islamic law or Shari’a was promoted with the best of intentions, believing its implementation would restore public trust in the central government and bring about a workable political solution. 

As the ICG report states: “A woman from the Lhoksemawe area…said the people she worked with believed that if Shari’a were adopted, the military would have to end its liaisons with local women and the police would have to stop running gambling dens.”

The local Acehnese administration was given the authority to set precedents over religion, customs and education. This newfound power slowly began to spread, eventually leading to the establishment of the Shari’a Office in 2001.

With the office came a new set of regulations to oversee the implementation of Islamic Law. These ‘Qanuns’ include rules concerning religious dress, the consumption of liquor, gambling and the illicit relations between men and women. 

In order to monitor and enforce these regulations, the Waliyatul Hisbah (WH) was then established, resulting in what the ICG report describes as a “haphazardly recruited, poorly disciplined, poorly supervised force that distinguished itself more by moral zeal than legal competence.”

The WH monitors the Acehnese population by conducting patrols and although at present they do not have the authority to make arrests, “it looks like they may be getting it,” says Jones.

Consequently police have had to grapple with the new authority of the WH. And while the two groups are in the process of working out the division of labour, another ‘enforcement’ group has emerged. These ‘anti-vice’ groups are often thug like in their approach, says Jones.  “It’s a phenomena that’s come about from having these local laws in place and it’s probably a problem that’s going to grow.”

Jones stresses Aceh is for the moment a relatively comfortable place to work. It is not, she says, a stridently monitored police state in which WH run rampant and anti-vice groups stand grimly on each street corner. Yet, she is concerned about the patrols of public places and the promotion of a ‘neighbourhood watch committee attitude towards life.’

‘Anti vice’ or vigilante groups have, in one instance at least, been known to get out of control. “There was a rape incident where one of these groups patrolling the beach ended up finding a couple who were basically making out on the beach and they went and gang raped the girl and they got immediately arrested and charged with rape.” However, Jones believes this behaviour is exceptional.

Although the controversial Anti-Pornography Bill has been shelved for the time being, it is, according to Jones, somewhat of a sleeping giant. “I think there will be pressure to bring it back but I think that people are hoping that it will just be pushed to the margins so it won’t be brought to a full debate.”

What worries Jones now is a proposed amendment to an already existing law in Aceh regarding illicit relations.

Illicit relations cover everything; from being alone with a man who is not a close relation almost anywhere except in the workplace (although this area too is becoming grey) to actually engaging in sexual activity.

The concern surrounding these revisions are “if [non-consensual] sexual relations have taken place and [the woman involved] can’t prove rape then she becomes the guilty party,” says Jones. With punishment that is based around public humiliation, public caning for example, reporting rape will become more difficult for the woman involved.

Public support for Shari’a, however, remains widespread. Whether Indonesians like the way it is being implemented is another question, explains Jones.

Indeed the defenders of the Bill and the implementation of hardline Shari’a law have widespread and fervent support. When Playboy launched its first Indonesian issue earlier this year it sparked intense protest, with the vigilante group Islamic Defender’s Front throwing stones at its Jakarta office.

Playboy and the influx of other Western tabloid magazines have helped to ignite the morals debate. Balkan Kaplale, head of the parliamentary committee responsible for the proposed Bill told the BBC that these types of publications are destroying the country. "It is terrible, our poor country. We are a religious people but now Indonesia is third worst in the world for porn after Scandinavia and Russia. It is so easily available and it is going unchecked. That is why we need this law.”

But how effective the new laws would be, if passed, in stopping hard-core pornographic material and the sex industry is questionable says Professor Tim Lindsey. “It is used as a guise to force legislation, it won’t be targeted due to relationships and bribes with the police.”

What will become of the Bill is uncertain but Professor Lindsey and author Julia Suryakusuma believe it will be implemented as a watered down version of the original.

“In true Indonesian fashion, which is just to accommodate and compromise all sides, to try and accommodate all the political interests not the real interests of the people, including of those in power who need the vote of political Islam, is to pass the bill,” says Suryakusuma.

But whether or not the Bill will be enforced with as much zeal as it has been debated is uncertain. Suryakusuma is adamant that she will not change the way she behaves or dresses.

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