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ixteen-year-old Tamara Ramli says that she has heard news about local politics, but it was the hullabaloo over Lady Gaga that sparked her opinion. “The brouhaha gives you an idea about how our law enforcers give in to the demands of certain groups,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Tamara, an 11th grader at the Mahatma Gading School in North Jakarta, is among tens of thousands of fans of the American singer, dubbed “Little Monsters”, who were unable to watch their idol perform after the organizer, Big Daddy Entertainment, announced that her Jakarta gig was canceled amid strong reactions from several Islamic groups.

The Jakarta Police initially declined to issue a recommendation for the concert permit for Gaga’s concert, making her the first foreign performer to be rejected by the country’s law enforcers.

“The police did nothing” in the face of threats made by groups such as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) should the controversial diva perform in the capital, Tamara said.

“Most of the media interviewed people opposing Gaga’s concert, dismissing the voice of her fans. I don’t feel like I’m living in a tolerant country anymore,” she added.

Bintang Lestada, 18, separately said that the entire tumult made him realize that Indonesian politics tended to exaggerate minor issues.

“How can we move on to talk about matters such as gender equality, poverty or corruption when some groups prefer to be narrow-minded for trivial issues like a concert permit?”

“Basically, this country is a big, fat joke,” he added in English.

Local fans expressed their views on the concert’s cancellation issue via social networks.

Among at least a dozen local Gaga Twitter fan-bases, @LadyGagaIndo and @IndonesiaProGaga totaled 25,310 and 6,832 followers respectively as of Tuesday. The latter account was formed in mid-May in the wake of the recent controversy.

On Sunday dozens of fans staged a flash-mob dance at eX Mall in Central Jakarta, to be uploaded on the video-sharing site YouTube next week.

Some plan to gather at Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, where the concert was previously scheduled to take place, on June 3, among others planning to scatter flowers to symbolize “the death of this country’s freedom of expression”.

Democratic Party lawmaker Tere Pardede noted the “positive outcome of the issue” regarding political awareness among the young.

Tere, one among Indonesian female pop and rock singers in the 2000s, serves in the House of Representatives Commission X overseeing youth and cultural affairs.

“I think many young Indonesians will have a hard time in learning politics merely through theories. However, the Gaga polemic is more relevant to their daily lives and thus encourages them to be more opinionated on the country’s political issues,” she added. (asa)