FAITH IN INDONESIA

FAITH IN INDONESIA
The shape of the world a generation from now will be influenced far more by how we communicate the values of our society to others than by military or diplomatic superiority. William Fulbright, 1964

Saturday, February 18, 2023

BEYOND BEYONCE - BENCHMARKING MALANG

 Visit Malang Where Satire’s Real

Depositphotos




This story was going to start by saying Beyoncé winning the Grammys was a godsend to the Indonesian media, but on reflection that might be dubbed impiety by those desperate to be offended.

Better report that the American singer’s triumph ticked all the boxes - glamour, entertainment, celebrity, music and fame. All it needed was to lift the story from US outlets and republish.

OK for newspapers and magazines that could cut-and-paste to suit their layouts, but the TV channels had a problem.That’s because the artist has been gifted with a treasure chest that she shows with pride, not hides with shame.

Her generous assets comforted her three sucklings as intended by nature.  Also pleasured have been her millions of fans,including a sizeable number of men who appreciate the talents of beautiful women.

Though not the misogynists in TV stations.

For some reason which readers of Indonesia Expat can explain, tape-editors mix meteorology with mammaries.

They did this by downloading clouds from  the weather bureau and dropping  them onto the singer’s ample cleavage,not to generate rain but to smother the lovely hills of the Texan’s skinscape.

Readers who favor overseas movies on Indonesian TV know blurrers are fickle. There’ll be a decolletage cover-up in one frame then clear vision moments later.  

Perhaps the censors get exhausted by watching excesses of flesh so dash outside to have a smoke and cool their lust but forget to stop the tape.

I’ve been told, but don’t believe because the explanation is ridiculous in a progressive and tolerant nation, that this blurring is to protect viewers’ sensitivities. That it interferes with balanced adults’ interest is of lesser concern.

There's also an absence of logic. No problem with vision of suicide bombs splattering blood and limbs across places of worship, but outrage at the sight of bodyparts that wobble in arenas of entertainment.

These bits are owned by more than half the adults in this country.  So they know what they look like and how they feel.

The 49 per cent who don’t have that joyful experience spend much of their time hoping to share - within marriage, of course.

But back to the cloud cover generated by a low depression.  Not the type which comes with barometric pressures but the pressure of prudes who think our Creator-given bodies are sinful.

Most of us believe otherwise and keen to celebrate the natural pleasures of consensual ***. We’ll blur the word lest it incite experimentation, but it rhymes with REX.

Father-knows-best was the ideology of last century, supposedly scrapped when we moved to democracy.  But the old ethos persists.

In Malang, where this observation is being keyboarded between thunderclaps and lightning bolts, the upright administrators of the charming hilltown have plenty of work, particularly on the roads.

The daily downpours gouge tyre-tearing craters in the asphalt that demand immediate attention.  The swarms of motorbikes choking the narrow streets makes commuting a misery  - controls required.  Traffic rules help, though only if obeyed.  Maybe more police on patrol?

But our lawmakers have instead chosen to concentrate on Jalan Ijen.  They call it a boulevard which is no exaggeration.

Two wide one-way roads,broad and mainly straight, separated by a manicured nature strip,a curated forest of blossoms.  On the flat flanks great villas display the restrained and gracious architecture of colonial days.

This is not a place to rev the engine, but to throttle back and admire. At a long-gone enlightened era 80 benches were installed. Here the weary can rest awhile and  enjoy the ambience.  

Or could until one lawmaker noticed that men were  sitting next to women - or vice-versa, with stress on the first word.  Worst still, they looked young and happy - qualities that affront the jealous.

The Jawa Pos which broke this exclusive story revealed that some politicians wanted all the benches removed to stop teenagers ‘making out’, whatever that means  Teens won’t understand because it’s from the age of pterodactyls  and prigs.

Taking out all the street furniture was eventually considered too extreme, so the solution has been to wire bamboo sticks across the seats, denying comfort to exuberant teens, weary pensioners and bemused tourists who must wonder if there’s been a Taliban takeover.

Visit Malang Where Satire’s Real Duncan Graham

This story was going to start by saying Beyoncé winning the Grammys was a godsend to the Indonesian media, but on reflection that might be dubbed impiety by those desperate to be offended.

Better report that the American singer’s triumph ticked all the boxes - glamour, entertainment, celebrity, music and fame. All it needed was to lift the story from US outlets and republish.

OK for newspapers and magazines that could cut-and-paste to suit their layouts, but the TV channels had a problem.That’s because the artist has been gifted with a treasure chest that she shows with pride, not hides with shame.

Her generous assets comforted her three sucklings as intended by nature.  Also pleasured have been her millions of fans,including a sizeable number of men who appreciate the talents of beautiful women.

Though not the misogynists in TV stations.

For some reason which readers of Indonesia Expat can explain, tape-editors mix meteorology with mammaries.

They did this by downloading clouds from  the weather bureau and dropping  them onto the singer’s ample cleavage,not to generate rain but to smother the lovely hills of the Texan’s skinscape.

Readers who favor overseas movies on Indonesian TV know blurrers are fickle. There’ll be a decolletage cover-up in one frame then clear vision moments later.  

Perhaps the censors get exhausted by watching excesses of flesh so dash outside to have a smoke and cool their lust but forget to stop the tape.

I’ve been told, but don’t believe because the explanation is ridiculous in a progressive and tolerant nation, that this blurring is to protect viewers’ sensitivities. That it interferes with balanced adults’ interest is of lesser concern.

There's also an absence of logic. No problem with vision of suicide bombs splattering blood and limbs across places of worship, but outrage at the sight of bodyparts that wobble in arenas of entertainment.

These bits are owned by more than half the adults in this country.  So they know what they look like and how they feel.

The 49 per cent who don’t have that joyful experience spend much of their time hoping to share - within marriage, of course.

But back to the cloud cover generated by a low depression.  Not the type which comes with barometric pressures but the pressure of prudes who think our Creator-given bodies are sinful.

Most of us believe otherwise and keen to celebrate the natural pleasures of consensual ***. We’ll blur the word lest it incite experimentation, but it rhymes with REX.

Father-knows-best was the ideology of last century, supposedly scrapped when we moved to democracy.  But the old ethos persists.

In Malang, where this observation is being keyboarded between thunderclaps and lightning bolts, the upright administrators of the charming hilltown have plenty of work, particularly on the roads.

The daily downpours gouge tyre-tearing craters in the asphalt that demand immediate attention.  The swarms of motorbikes choking the narrow streets makes commuting a misery  - controls required.  Traffic rules help, though only if obeyed.  Maybe more police on patrol?

But our lawmakers have instead chosen to concentrate on Jalan Ijen.  They call it a boulevard which is no exaggeration.

Two wide one-way roads,broad and mainly straight, separated by a manicured nature strip,a curated forest of blossoms.  On the flat flanks great villas display the restrained and gracious architecture of colonial days.

This is not a place to rev the engine, but to throttle back and admire. At a long-gone enlightened era 80 benches were installed. Here the weary can rest awhile and  enjoy the ambience.  

Or could until one lawmaker noticed that men were  sitting next to women - or vice-versa, with stress on the first word.  Worst still, they looked young and happy - qualities that affront the jealous.

The Jawa Pos which broke this exclusive story revealed that some politicians wanted all the benches removed to stop teenagers ‘making out’, whatever that means  Teens won’t understand because it’s from the age of pterodactyls  and prigs.



Taking out all the street furniture was eventually considered too extreme, so the solution has been to wire bamboo sticks across the seats, denying comfort to exuberant teens, weary pensioners and bemused tourists who must wonder if there’s been a Taliban takeover.

Undeterred the couples are now getting down and dirty on the grass among flowerbeds, likely to be sprayed with herbicide once the decorum detectives sniff villainy.

But that’s not all.  Security squads will  ensure bosom pals don’t go literal. . Duties of the men in black (Motto: We Hate Life So You Must Too) don’t include stopping bikers riding on the sidewalk or helping the frail and fearful cross the roads - that would be going too far.

A published pre-wiring benchmark photo illustrating the story showed every seat occupied by citizens of all ages, not fondling each other but caressing their cellphones.  The picture didn’t reveal their preoccupation - but we modernists keep abreast of developments.

They were using VPNs, like most do to by-pass the morality cops and so watch Vimeo or whatever they like,cloud free.  Maybe even Beyoncé’s splendid god-given physique.

##

 

 

 

 

 

 

Undeterred the couples are now getting down and dirty on the grass among flowerbeds, likely to be sprayed with herbicide once the decorum detectives sniff villainy.

But that’s not all.  Security squads will  ensure bosom pals don’t go literal. . Duties of the men in black (Motto: We Hate Life So You Must Too) don’t include stopping bikers riding on the sidewalk or helping the frail and fearful cross the roads - that would be going too far.

A published pre-wiring benchmark  photo illustrating the story showed every seat occupied by citizens of all ages, not fondling each other but caressing their cellphones.  The picture didn’t reveal their preoccupation - but we modernists keep abreast of developments.

They were using VPNs, like most do to by-pass the morality cops and so watch Vimeo or whatever they like,cloud free.  Maybe even Beyoncé’s splendid god-given physique.

##

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, February 12, 2023

TELLING OUR STORY

 The ABC of talking to neighbours


 

Image:  ABC


Do we care how others see us? Not much if our prime showcase ABC Australia is a guide.

 It seems Corporation managers take a couple of positions on the overseas TV service. The staid reckon it’s a tiresome Charter-imposed chore, so just serve sportsicks on hols with League and AFL.

 Progressives spot chances to tell that Australia’s not just a cuddle-koala stopover, but a maturing society trying to get from down under to on top.

 In its 2019 report  A Missed Opportunity for Projecting Australia’s Soft Power the Lowy Institute claimed ‘international broadcasting is one of the most effective forms of public diplomacy, if managed properly…

  ‘Australia is explicitly competing for global and regional influence, yet Australia’s international broadcasting has been weakened through a combination of government inconsistency and neglect, ideology-driven decisions, budget cuts and apparent ABC management indifference.’

 Has anything changed?   Yes, but … A few programmes, like Foreign Correspondent, Books That Made Us and The School That Tried To End Racism now have Indonesian subtitles.  (Nat Geo, Discovery and other international telecasters keen to reach far and deep subtitle all fare.  Indian sitcoms are dubbed.)

 Most Indonesians still rely on TV for info but few follow English. One study ranked Indonesia 81 of 111 countries surveyed for proficiency.  

 ABC HQ in Ultimo is shuffling forward, though not fast enough to show we’re more than the descendants of murderous land thieves fumbling with ways to atone.

  We have the products, but not the packaging.  The World runs parochial pieces and a weather map that just squeezes NZ and PNG into the frame.  Programmes like the 7.30 Report are dropped or relocated with no alerts. Treat viewers with contempt and they’ll click on elsewhere.

 Some pluses: The ABC’s Jakarta bureau has reopened after the pandemic with correspondent Anne Barker. Other mainstream media, like the AFR are based in Singapore.  Which is like covering Canberra from Wellington.

 Balance means telling others how we see them and here the ABC is doing OK with three regulars - India Now, China Tonight and Planet America. Will the Arafura Sea gap get bridged?

 Sally Jackson of ABC News communications told this column ‘there are no other (programmes focused on specific countries) to announce at this time.’   If that response isn’t a  hint of plans to feature the world’s third largest democracy next door, then we’ll continue to know more of Mar-a-Lago than Istana Bogor, (a Presidential palace 60 km south of Jakarta.)

 On 14 February 2024  Indonesians go to the polls, making last year’s G20 Bali shindig look like a pub chat. The campaign is already gearing up through conferences, meetings, statements and spanduk (huge banners) which smother road signs and turn streetscapes into avenues of ads.

 The Constitution says two five-year terms as Pres are enough, so Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo can’t stay beyond October next year.  There’s been a tepid attempt to keep his shoes on the doorstep, but so far he’s shown minimal warmth.

 The president is elected by direct vote.  No compulsion.  Last time the turnout was 81 per cent of the 187 million registered voters – minimum age 17. The total population has increased by more than ten million (to an estimated 281 million) in the past five years.

 What Indonesians  know about Australia isn’t much and what they care is even less if surveys are right. On the street it’s often bemusement:  How can a country be independent with the Union Jack on its flag? Do pythons curl under toilet seats?  Are we really Washington’s deputy sheriff?

  That’s not our neighbours’  fault, because we’re making small effort to tell our story. The Coalition had little enthusiasm for public broadcasting, particularly if it meant spending money on a service for foreigners.  

 The former ABC managing director Mark Scott (now head of NSW Education) commented that pruning overseas services:

 ‘…runs counter to the approach adopted by the vast majority of G20 countries. Countries around the world are expanding their international broadcasting services as key instruments of public diplomacy.’ They include Britain, the US, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, France, Germany, Singapore, Russia and China.  

 The public broadcaster reportedly had $526 million cut from its budgets since 2014. Last November Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told The Guardian that on top of a new five-year funding cycle there’s a review underway.

 Labor calls its strategy a ‘strong Australian voice’ in the ‘Indo Pacific’. The term is spongy but here it apparently means 38 countries  disparate in culture, language, rule and drive, all served by one channel. Two years ago $11 million a year was being spent on its combined international services, with ABC Australia costing around $4 million. 

It’s distributed by Intelsat to re-broadcasters. They get it free, but the viewers don’t. In Indonesia, three pay-to-use cable services carry the service.

Voice of America’s annual budget is US $267 million, all from government funds. It broadcasts and telecasts in more than 40 languages, including Indonesian. The French Government is reported to spend E 102 million a year on France 24.

 The last ABC annual report  had a monthly viewership of at least 3.6 million’ for ABC Australia.  The ten-member ASEAN population alone is 686 million.

  Declared candidate Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, who has just been put in charge of coordinating intel, has been involved in whacky dog whistling about invasion threats.

 The latest Is wanting army commands installed in Kalimantan province (Borneo) because the natural resources of these regions (are) vulnerable to being stolen by other parties.

Imagined LGBT infiltrators corrupting the pious is heading to be another dirty issue.  

 It will be Prabowo’s third stab at the top job. The former general went into exile in 1998 after being discharged for ‘misinterpreting orders’.

 If electors start to believe campaign claims poisoning the relationship they’ll need an independent trusted source for facts and counter-views.  Concerned viewers should click ABC Australia but only those who understand English.

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Disclosure: The author used to work for ABC Current Affairs.

 

First published in Independent Australia 10 February 2023: https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/the-abc-of-talking-to-neighbours,17217

COMING OUR WAY? THE YEAR OF THE HEADLESS CHOOK

 Stranger danger? The neighbour we know nowt about

Credit:  Detik.com



He’s an enigma and a tease, a knotty man difficult for outsiders to unravel.

Just when rationalists thought Indonesian politics couldn’t get tangled further,  President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has made yet another seemingly loopy decision - though that’s a Westerner’s analysis, empty of local cultural reasoning.   

He’s given the critical job of coordinating intel services to the Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, 71, who’s pitching to be president at next year’s 14 February election.  The promotion gives him access to international spy secrets and even greater prominence in the media.

It seems to have worked.  Prabowo’s Gerindra  (Great Indonesia Movement Party)  has leapfrogged to second place in the latest reliable poll of voters, though still far behind Jokowi’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle ( PDI-P in Indonesian terms.)

This will be the disgraced former three-star general’s third charge at the most powerful position in Southeast Asia.  Prabowo (as he’s known) is Indonesia’s version of Donald Trump, albeit better educated and intelligent, making him more dangerous. On the publicly-available evidence (he hasn’t responded to requests for an interview) he comes across as a volatile paranoid narcissist.

He denied he’d lost the 2019 election when the official results had him ten points behind.  As noted on this website his supporters rioted in Jakarta.  Eight were killed and more than 700 injured.

He challenged the result in the Constitutional Court and lost.  Jokowi became president and then made his furious rival the Defence Minister.  This role gave him the power to negotiate arms deals overseas before Covid curbed flights, but also a platform in domestic politics.

Prabowo’s latest appeal to nostalgic electors seeking a toughie at the top is wanting army commands installed in Kalimantan province (Borneo) because the natural resources of these regions (are) vulnerable to being stolen by other parties’.  As usual when whistling dogs, the real or imagined poachers haven’t been named.

Prabowo was a US-trained soldier who accelerated his career by marrying Titiek the daughter of second president Soeharto.  But even these contacts couldn’t stop  his dishonourable discharge for ‘misinterpreting orders’  during the 1998 chaos following his father-in-law’s resignation.

Prabowo’s international downfall was also linked to allegations of atrocities committed by troops he’d led in East Timor and Papua.  For a while he was banned from the US because of alleged human rights violations.

His marriage fractured and he fled to exile in Jordan .Helped by his billionaire businessman brother Hashim Djojohadikusoemo he returned to build Gerindra as the vehicle for his born-to-rule ambitions.


Not Benito in the 1930s - but Prabowo in the 2010s   Credit SCMP


Before Prabowo’s second stab at the presidency in 2019, award-winning  US journalist  Allan Nairn, who’d covered fighting in East Timor and been bashed by soldiers, said he’d seen plans to stage mass arrests of political opponents and restore the army’s leadership role it held under Soeharto should Prabowo win.  The timing of the story made it suspect.


Prabowo has one son Didit Hediprasetyo, a fashion designer and socialite who lives in Germany.  Indonesian social media commentators sometimes daringly suggest that he’s gay though this could be a fabrication to discredit his ultra-macho Dad.


In Australia such scuttlebutt would damn this columnist for turning tabloid. However it’s relevant in Indonesian politics. A wave of LGBT hate sponsored by faith groups has been sweeping the nation and will be an issue in the campaign.

The nation’s foremost  Islamic authority the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Islamic scholars) has issued a fatwa (religious edict) stating ‘sexual orientation towards the same sex is a disorder that must be cured.’  Churches are also into vilification.

In Indonesia the marriage equality debate has nothing to do with same sex bonding..  It means the prohibition of interfaith weddings - an issue distressing those who thought their country supported tolerance.

Prabowo is in a fix; if he bangs the deviancy drum too hard Didit or his mates might speak out.To ignore means getting offside with the moral panic. The present plan seems to pump xenophobia rather than homophobia.  This is ironic because suave Prabowo is comfy with the foreigners that he tells the mob to mistrust.

Jokowi can’t stand again as the Constitution confines the position to two five-year terms. So who does he favour as his successor?

The President has told supporters to consider candidates whose hair had turned white from caring so much about the people.’  This has been interpreted as an endorsement of Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, 54, who’s with the PDI-P.  Unlike many ageing politicians he doesn’t use hair dye.

Late last year Jokowi spoke at a public function:  ‘I won two presidential elections. Apologies, Pak (Mr) Prabowo. It looks like it’s Prabowo’s turn after this.’ 

Dissembling makes sense to those deep in Javanese culture. German-born Jesuit philosopher  Dr Franz Magnis-Suseno author of Javanese Ethics and World View stresses that the Javanese value rukun (harmony), ‘to prevent the development of conflict-engendering emotions … The open expression of feelings is considered extremely bad taste.’   

Incumbent and aspirant are both Javanese, though wide apart. Slim Jokowi, 61, always elegant in batik, is an archetypal low-key traditional  poor-lad-makes good.  He was raised on a riverbank in a rented shack.  Dad Noto Mihardjo was a chippie.

Plump Prabowo favours safari suits. He’s from a rich distinguished family with revolutionary credentials. Schooled in London he speaks fluent English.  Papa Soemitro Djojohadikoesoemo was a minister and economist who studied in the Netherlands.

 

‘Conflict-avoidance’ and ‘harmony’ are not terms even hagiographers would link to Prabowo.  How that marries with Javanese ethics is another mystery to the unanointed, but the culture is hierarchical, giving the elite leniencies denied to the wee folk.

The left-right, socialist-capitalist divides that help Australians get a grip  on politics are absent in Indonesia where nationalism and religion infiltrate all debates..  There’s little disagreement among the parties on economic,social and security issues. Vote buying is widespread.  

The game of politics is played through personalities, not policies.

Should Prabowo win, our she’ll-be-right policies for dealing with Jakarta for the past two decades will be sent for recycling.  In Canberra it will be the Year of the Headless Chook.


 First published in Michael West Media 12 February 2023: https://michaelwest.com.au/stranger-danger-indonesias-next-president-could-be-a-threat/