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Religion and politics take centre stage in Indonesian pageants
For weeks, Indonesians have been fixated on the issue of beauty pageants
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For weeks, Indonesians have been fixated on the issue of beauty pageants.
Hardline and conservative Muslims have been campaigning to stop Indonesia from hosting Miss World 2013, even after the government relented to their demand that the September 28 finals be moved from the outskirts of Jakarta in Muslim-dominant Java to the Hindu island of Bali.
Islamic conservatives have tried to cast the debate as one about morality. But it could just as easily be seen as having to do with politics, and in particular manoeuvring ahead of the presidential election next year.
Tellingly, both the government and Islamic conservatives have done little about Miss World's rival, World Muslimah. Organised by a local Muslim group, the latter event held its final round on Wednesday in the capital.
Is there a double standard at work here?
Opponents of the Miss World contest have linked up with the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), the nation's highest authority on Islam, in their campaign against the pageant.
Their objection to the contest has been driven by two reasons.
First, Islam frowns upon the beauty contest because it involves violating women's modesty by having the contestants expose too much of themselves when they wear bikinis.
An Islamic edict forbids women from exposing their "aurat", parts of the body that must be covered except to their husbands or relatives.
Even if the participants were to replace the bikinis with the traditional Balinese sarongs, the contest remains haram (forbidden) because of the display of women's beauty when they are paraded on the catwalk, they argue.
Second, the contest is seen as contrary to Indonesian culture, according to MUI chairman Amidhan Shaberah. The foreign participants will bring with them their own cultures and values that may not be compatible with those in Indonesia. They will be wearing their own costumes and may conduct themselves in a way that may transgress the pornography law.
These reasons explain why they allowed the rival beauty contest known as World Muslimah 2013 in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Originally known as World Muslimah Beauty when it started in 2011, the local organisers have since dropped the word "beauty" from the event, claiming that the contest went beyond a mere beauty pageant.
Unlike Miss World or Miss Universe pageants, the World Muslimah event saw contestants wearing the jilbab (headscarf) and long and loose-fitting gowns that covered the parts of the body considered important to a woman's modesty. There was no swimsuit-wearing either.
What they wore instead were dresses designed for Muslim women who want to look beautiful despite being covered in a jilbab.
The Muslim contest was also in line with the local culture, as the emphasis was on sholehah (piety of a Muslim woman) and style rather than beauty.
The contestants were expected not only to dress properly but also to conduct themselves with decorum even as they appeared on the catwalk.
They were also graded for their proficiency in reciting the Quran and in ritual prayers.
"We have consulted the Muslim clerics on this. We no longer have the beauty tag for this contest," said Rofi Zardaida, co-founder of the World Muslimah Foundation, the local organiser of the contest.
Many Indonesians, however are not convinced that the two events should be treated differently. After all, they are both pageants in which contestants are paraded for their beauty.
The main difference between the two events is in the way the contestants dress up - one in which contestants wear the jilbab and one without. But there is a bias against the Miss World pageant because the hardliners view it as a tradition from the West which they are against.
In the debate over the hosting of beauty pageants in Indonesia, one may ask whether it is fair to use an Islamic yardstick to evaluate the Miss World contest.
After all, most of the contestants are non-Muslims, including the representative from Indonesia. Naturally, being non-Muslim, they are not bound by the aurat rule and the ban on participating in beauty contests.
Why should they be prohibited from wearing bikinis? If it is sinful for Muslim men to gaze on women in bikinis or in tight-fitting dresses, then they should not be watching the show.
The hardliners' objection to the hosting of Miss World in Indonesia, however, may not be motivated entirely by religion.
Political rivalry also appears to be involved. The organiser of the Miss World pageant is the media conglomerate MNC Group, owned by Hary Tanoesoedibjo, an Indonesian Chinese tycoon expected to be the running mate of former general Wiranto of the Hanura party in next year's presidential election.
His company will have the rights to the broadcast of the pageant to television stations around the world and can reap other benefits.
The campaign to stop the Miss World pageant may be an oblique attempt to undermine him by damaging his reputation among Muslims and denying his company any commercial gains from the project.
The whole episode certainly reflects the extent to which religion is very much in the body politic of Indonesia.
It again exemplifies the impotency of the government when faced with pressure from hardline and conservative Muslims who are small in numbers but a vocal minority.
