P

resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has clearly pleased those who demanded that he purify the nation from any unreligious sex-related activities, with the government deciding to hire antipornography hunters across the country on Tuesday. The President has calmed the fears and anxieties of the country’s major abusers of power by sending a strong message that pornography is a top government priority, and not corruption instead.

We strongly support the President’s announcement of a total war on pornography, because as a religious nation we are too embarrassed with the fact that Indonesia is among the world’s top three pornography-crazed countries after China and Turkey. But how about the crimes of corruption, which have also humiliated Indonesia for decades?

There are allegations that the President just wants to divert public attention from the plan to raise fuel prices, because such a price hike policy is usually followed by security and public disturbances. But the government’s argument that the antipornography move has nothing to do with the fuel price plan, because it just wants to implement the law, is also understandable.

We wholeheartedly praise the President’s decision on Tuesday to set up an antipornography task force as required by the Law on Pornography. The seriousness of the President was strongly reflected in his decision to assign the Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono to chair the sex-criminal hunter team, while Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali will oversee its daily operations.

While there is no doubt of the importance of pornography eradication, many people are curious why the President is very enthusiastic in eradicating pornography, but looks powerless against economic crimes and the massive thefts of the state coffers.

The President hopefully has the same understanding and sense of urgency as the whole nation that the theft of state money has reached an intolerable level. Millions of Indonesians cannot not get their constitutional rights for basic health, education and employment because the funds allocated for those fields have been stolen by irresponsible political elites, greedy businesspeople and those who have sworn to God that they would totally and wholeheartedly serve the nation as mandated by the state.

It is common sense to say there is no Indonesian who does not support Yudhoyono’s determination to ensure that sex-related crimes will no longer exist here. But it is just as normal for another question to follow: Is pornography much more dangerous than corruption? Massive corruption practices in this country are so rampant that the crime is often ridiculously categorized as part of our diversified culture.

Yudhoyono has an obligation to carry out what has been mandated to the government by the law, in this context, pornography. But the world will laugh at us when we spend much of our energy on ensuring the morality of the people on sexual matters, when at the same time the government is very reluctant to eradicate graft.

For the President one thing is clear: Pornography is a much safer issue than corruption in terms of his personal popularity, because many corrupt individuals are perhaps his own friends or political allies who can take deadly revenge against him if he challenges their illicit acts.