This is a comment on the outcry over the sex tape controversy alleged involving noted celebrities.

I am an Indonesian living in the Netherlands. I am always wary when so-called holy men and politicians define what are good and bad morals — especially when they are corrupt politicians. The history books are full of destruction and genocide when supposedly “holy” men and elitist “wise” men impose on the people what is good and bad morals: WWII, Pol Pot, Mao, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Sudan etc.

Especially in a country such as Indonesia, with hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups, people should be wary of mandatory, government-imposed morals.

For example, it’s still debatable whether dangdut can be classified as pornography (obviously some groups classify it as such). Another example, the Balinese people are against the pornography bill as they think that their culture and income (tourism) can be threatened by this bill (Balinese dances, sculptures, tourists in bikinis etc.).

What about the artistic expression (dances, ceremonies) of the hundreds of other ethnic groups? Who is to decide what is sexual and what is not, what is culture and what is not?

And can we really classify, assumingly a private homemade video of adults that was — again assumingly — never meant to be shown to the public, as porn? If there are any culprits, it’s those who deliberately disseminated the video to the public.

Apart from the above, don’t the government and the bureaucracy have anything better to do?

It’s funny that people in the corrupt apparatus are now using this scandal for a new bill to block parts of the internet. That bill has more potential to threaten Indonesian society than thousands of Ariel videos.

Jokom
Amsterdam

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