The recent news that the viewing of online pornography is to be criminalized in Indonesia hasn't sent me into an immediate panic. This is partly because I would never even countenance the idea of looking at naked ladies on my computer and may God strike me down etc etc. But my lack of concern also reflects the fact that, although pornography has always been illegal here, this fact doesn't seem to have stopped Jakartans from being vociferous consumers of the stuff (if my local DVD vendors are anything to go by).
The online legislation looks like another unenforceable law that will be forgotten about six months hence. However, we'll have to see if any test cases are brought before the courts and some poor lower class Web surfer is led stumbling up to the witness stand with his white stick in order to incur the full penalty of the law.
As Marilyn Monroe once said when she was asked about sex, "I think it's here to stay." That being the case, I think we can safely say that both prostitution and pornography are here to stay too and will continue to persist despite conservative attempts to eradicate them. There are obviously more important things that the government could be doing but I guess that politicians think that they can gain some political traction here by harping on traditional family values in the run-up to the election.
One piece of fallout from this story that particularly tickled me though was the report that Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Indonesia's richest man and mudflow maverick Aburizal Bakrie has just launched 12 textbooks on morality for primary and secondary school students. Perhaps he should have a little flick through them himself.
Pornography, of course, is notoriously difficult to define objectively. One man's (or woman's) porn is another man's art or erotica. Indeed there have been modern philosophers, such as French theorist Jacques Lacan, who have argued that human sexuality is essentially pornographic. Human sex cannot be reduced to the simple biological excitation of lower animals because we, uniquely, possess language and thus a whole symbolic order of meaning and imagination. Fantasy is therefore integral to our mental states. Strip away the fantasy and human sexuality disappears with it.
Lacan also argues that although people condemn porn because it objectifies its photographic subjects, our deepest desire is in fact to be objectified; not to possess or fuse with another but to be objectified and used by them. For Lacan, “Desire is the desire of the other." The perfect erotic situation is therefore to be objectified by someone that you also objectify.
But that's enough of the pretentious French theoretical filth. Let's get down to brass tacks (rubs hands with glee). I decided to run a few Web searches in order to get a broad overview (no pun intended) of the whole web porn phenomenon. Typing the words ‘Indonesia’ and ‘Sex’ into Google yielded some interesting results. I was promised ‘Indonesian Girls Nude’ on one link. However, when I eagerly clicked on it I found that the site had been removed. Bah humbug. Had the net enforcers already commenced their porn clampdown? My two word search also returned many serious sites about AIDS and sex workers here. One BBC article from 2003 that arose from my search outlined new laws being considered in Indonesia. These were as follows:
*Couples found living together before marriage would face up to two years in prison
*A man breaking a promise to marry a woman pregnant by him could end up in prison for five years
*Acts of oral sex and sodomy would be punished by between three and 12 years in jail
*Homosexual sex could result in between one and seven years in prison.
Leaving aside for a moment the logical inconsistencies between the third and fourth laws here and the fact that I should be facing a life sentence about now, I was starting to feel that my search for good rocking Indonesian cybersex was beginning to take a rather dour turn. What would happen if these laws were passed? Perhaps the police would declare an amnesty on sex toys like some countries do on firearms every now and again and people could turn in their vibrators, butt plugs and love eggs to the nearest police station.
This endless criminalizing of sexuality is indeed an Asian phenomenon that smacks of social engineering and a Big Brother society. Sexual morality, thanks largely to our religions, is far too often synonymous with sexual repression. Now I'm not advocating topless badminton tournaments at Senayan here, just an honest acknowledgement that sexual feelings are the most natural thing that the human subject can experience.
I think it can be argued that sexual repression leads to more problems than it purports to solve. Think of all those young men with AK-47s in one hand and a copy of the Koran in the other, sublimating their sexual tensions through militarism. Think of so-called, "Honor killings", where a female member of a family is murdered by her own father or brother for alleged sexual indiscretion. Think also of the various scandals involving catholic priests sexually abusing young boys in their charge as a consequence of their enforced celibacy.
Anyway, I thought I would attempt to cheer myself up with one last try. I banged ‘Indonesian Girls’ into Google (no pun intended again) and perused the results. I found a great site called BIG (Beautiful Indonesian Girls) which hopefully won't get blocked as its stars are all fully clothed (although revealing a lot of naked hair, which would no doubt scandalize Abu Bakar Bashir).
They were lovely ladies indeed. Sexist? Well, if appreciating a pretty female face is sexist then I'm a Dutchman.
Gauw tot ziens
