Tifatul handshake incident goes global

The hubbub over Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring’s hand-shake with United States First Lady Michelle Obama has apparently gone global.

Tifatul, known as a conservative Muslim, believes it is not proper to shake hands with any woman who is not his wife or blood relation.

However, during Obama’s recent visit to Indonesia, Tifatul was caught on camera shaking hands with Michelle. Indonesians then mocked Tifatul on several social networking sites for being a hypocrite.

Tifatul defended himself, saying Michelle Obama had forced her hands upon his.
A US-based talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert highlighted the incident in a segment.

Colbert joked that he agreed with Tifatul’s view to not shake hands with women.
“Think about it, what are knuckles but finger-boobs?” Colbert said.

International porn-star Vicky Vette also said on her Twitter feed that the minister could touch her anytime he wanted in public.

“Hmmm, I wanna get 'handy' with Indo's Information Minister too!” Vicky said in one of her Twitter updates Thursday.