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text: Ban on Jaipong
Your comments on the plan of the West Java government to prohibit the performance of the province's traditional dances of jaipong and ketuk tilu as the dances are considered of violating pornography law
Your comments on the plan of the West Java government to prohibit the performance of the province's traditional dances of jaipong and ketuk tilu as the dances are considered of violating pornography law.
I am so sick and tired of hearing about the pornography law. It is clear it needs to be revised because there are still ambiguous points in the bill. Government officials should to stop banning activities like jaipong dances.
Instead of banning traditional performing arts, they should ban the dances that are becoming more erotic in today's entertainment world.
Cantika P.
Bandung
It is sad that some people are unable to appreciate their own culture by simply labeling it obscene.
RIA
Jakarta
Considering the vague and all-encompassing reach of the current pornography law, banning a traditional dance is just stupid.
TV, magazines, sales promotion girls, boxes of soap showing exposed shoulders, and the vast majority of advertisements for commercial products can be banned under the law's loose wording.
Given this potential power, that the governor chose to go after a traditional dance which cannot defend itself, speaks volumes about the fact the governor is ultimately powerless to go after anything else.
He cannot control the media or businesses, or even individuals wearing short skirts, since consistent law enforcement is weak in Indonesia.
He is just playing politics and pandering to a Muslim constituency to show he still supports a pornography law, albeit a badly written one.
Karuna
Jakarta
I can imagine jaipong dancers performing wearing burdah and jilbab and moving only their heads and fingers. Only the West Java governor would stay and watch, whereas all the other guests would go home! Ridiculous!
Soebagio Soetadji
Jakarta
This is crazy. How much more of our beautiful culture must we lose because of stupid laws?
Mohammed Ismel
Jakarta
Most of my countrymen, who have never had the chance of going abroad, tend to become victims themselves of the pornography law.
They have no capacity whatsoever for comparison as they are confined to their own limited spheres.
They simply do not know how beautiful our jaipong and ketuk tilu dances are, for they have nothing to them compare with.
People who do not know how to appreciate our wealth of culture should be banned from becoming leaders of the country.
This is where our educational system should come in, in order to avoid ignorance of religion, of culture and the like.
Moeljono Adikoesoemo
Jakarta
To ban traditional dances because they are considered pornographic just shows how narrow-minded Indonesian people are.
Mace
Jakarta
I agree with the governor about these traditional dances because he knows best.
E. Nurdin
Jakarta
The West Java governor plans to ban jaipong dancers from wearing sexy costumes and making provocative moves? But jaipong dance was never a problem originally.
I think the plan represents an effort by the West Java provincial government to keep its traditional jaipong dances.
The pornography law can not be implemented because the supporting government regulations have not yet been issued. The law needs detailed guidance for its implementation.
Abdul Rahim
Tangerang, Banten
