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View all search resultsAnalysis: Netflix comedy show tests if Indonesian politicians can take a joke
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Provocative charges: Prominent Indonesian comic Pandji Pragiwaksono is seen waving in this undated photograph. (Instagram.com/pandji.pragiwaksono/File)
A
n Indonesian political standup-comedy show currently streaming on Netflix has become one of the top trending topics on social media these past few weeks, some calling the content inappropriate while others welcoming it as a fresh take on current affairs. And now police are stepping in following formal reports for defamation, incitement and blasphemy.
Titled Mens Rea, a Latin phrase meaning guilty mind, the show released just before the end of the year has become a litmus test about the extent of free speech, including satire, in the country under the new Criminal Code which came into force on New Year Day.
Typically, the controversy, and now the reports filed with police, raised more curiosity and more views, so that it became the number one show on Netflix in Indonesia in the first three weeks of its release.
Pandji Pragiwaksono, one of Indonesia’s leading standup comedians, spared no one in the country’s political elite during the more than two-hour monologue, from the president and vice president, the military and the police, the political parties, Cabinet ministers and politicians who had been prominent in the news, as well as religious organizations.
The Netflix show is a recording of his stage performance at Indonesia Arena in Central Jakarta in August before a full capacity crowd of 10,000 paying audiences. It was a huge commercial success then, and now courtesy of Netflix, millions more people have watched it.
Given the controversy, it was only a matter of time before someone would turn to the law. Some took the bait, although it was not clear which of the big public figures or institutions they represent. Police said they have received separately three reports and two formal complaints to justify their investigation.
One complaint was filed by an individual claiming the content had been inciting and blasphemous.
