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Tight 'kebaya' now OK in rehashed porn bill
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 10/12/2006 10:10 AM
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A House of Representatives special committee has agreed to draw up a new version of the pornography bill that members say will be more amenable to women, artists and non-Muslim indigenous cultures.
In a closed-door meeting of the committee, members agreed to articles that protected the sartorial preferences of people from indigenous cultures.
""A new stipulation carries an exception for kebaya (body-hugging attire usually worn by Javanese women) or koteka (penis gourds worn in Papua),"" team member Rustam Tamburaka of the Golkar Party faction told The Jakarta Post after the meeting.
Earlier drafts of the bill would also have made it illegal for women to wear revealing clothing, including short skirts or tank-tops on the street. It is unclear whether articles regulating these offenses have been removed.
However, Rustam said the bill would not consider catwalk models offenders of public morality. ""Should this version of the bill be endorsed as it is, those models could stay in their professions without having to worry,"" he said.
Members of the committee tasked with rehashing the bill also agreed to less restrictions on the art world, with the definition of pornography excluding works of art put on display to a ""limited audience"".
""The new definition is tough only on the dissemination of pornographic works to the general public,"" Rustam said.
In the new draft, pornography is defined as a deliberate action to distribute materials that depict genital, or sexual intercourse for public display to arouse or titillate the viewer.
The team also agreed to get tough on child pornography and ensure children were kept away from pornographic materials.
""We don't want our children to become victims of peddlers of pornography,"" Rustam said.
The first sign the committee had back-tracked on the bill was detectable earlier in the day, when committee chairman Balkan Kaplale of the Democrat Party said the controversial legislation would only be discussed under its newer shorter title, the ""pornography bill"".
Originally the draft was titled the ""anti-pornography and indecent acts bill"".
""We have responded to those opposed to the initial draft by changing the name of this bill into one that contains only the word pornography,"" Balkan said.
Earlier versions of the bill were criticized by women's, human rights and cultural groups for being an attempt to introduce sharia law by stealth.
