BTW: Another ban?
Let’s drink to that
I’d like to propose a toast – to prohibition.
If the government goes ahead and bans alcohol we’ll be
facing an exciting and interesting future; no shortage of news.
The only visitors who’ll come to marvel and spend will be
abstainers. Tourist authorities should prepare their marketing ploys now. Suggestions: Go where it’s Dry –
Indonesia, the Arid Archipelago or
Want to Try Teetotal? Visit Indonesia-
No Temptations!
Multinationals will have to recruit their ex-pat staff from
temperance societies, perhaps not the largest talent pool. But hey – who wants
big projects and foreign investment?
Better no development if the bankers are boozers.
Naturally the negative thinkers will remind us that
prohibition was tried in the US between 1920 and 1933 and was such a failure
the law had to be repealed.
But that was America; Indonesia is different; the locals
will embrace the new rules and there’ll be no thirst for change.
My Muslim friends who drink say that they remain 95 per cent
religious because beer is only five per cent alcohol. That’s supposed to be a joke.
What won’t be funny will be the hundreds who’ll die in agony
or go blind through drinking bad moonshine.
It happens now when they can still buy the pure stuff in the
supermarkets – how serious will it get when they can’t?
The upside is that there’ll be more jobs for health workers,
police, lawyers, warders, ambulance drivers and grave diggers. Signwriters will
earn a fortune making banners warning of the evils of drinking cocktails of
battery acid, drain cleaner and flyspray.
Social historians note that prohibition in the US helped
develop the criminal gangs that smuggled and sold liquor, creating a new and
violent underworld. Who hasn’t heard of the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in
Chicago? But that was in America;
Indonesia is different.
Politicians, the rich and influential were always able to
get their hands on beer, wine and spirits, whatever the law said. Even President Woodrow Wilson had his own
private supply. Corruption thrived. One
famous bootlegger told The Washington
Post that 80 per cent of Senators and Congressmen continued to drink. But
that was America; Indonesia is
different.
We already have a ban on pornography to protect the
impressionable young. But if you want
to know how to bypass censorship by downloading a legal free app with just one
click of the mouse, ask any adolescent.
During the fasting month of Ramadhan liquor has always been
banned in the hotels of my town which gets a good income from tourism. That
hasn’t stopped drinking – it has just meant that visitors get their drinks
served in teacups, not glasses.
In its international dealings Indonesia advocates the
principle of non-interference in the affairs of other states, even when, like
Myanmar, the government ruthlessly persecutes Muslims. But no such taboo exists when it comes to
interfering in the lives of citizens – what they do in their office, bedrooms
and now kitchens and dining rooms.
If the wowsers win, public order officials will burst into
homes and rip open fridges in their search for the aberrant bottle, then
prosecute the naughty adult who thinks a drink complements a meal and believes
in free choice.
Religious zealots will have something else to do other than
persecuting pluralists and opposing church-building. Street scavengers will get extra returns by telling police they
found an empty beer can in the trash at number 35.
The US filled its
jails to overflowing, lost vast revenue and spent more energy chasing brewers
instead of bandits before realising that human behavior can’t be so easily
controlled.
But that was in America; Indonesia is different.
Drinking to excess causes real harm. The curse of drunk drivers, brawls outside
pubs and alcohol poisoning are major issues in some Western countries. The
problem is not the grog, but the ‘excess’.
Binge-drinking, going out to get plastered and behaving
violently and obscenely is unacceptable anywhere. Fines, public health warnings and other campaigns make a
difference, but peer pressure is more powerful.
Changes come when individuals take responsibility for their
own behavior, not when governments make decisions for them. But this is Indonesia – and it’s different. Duncan Graham
(First published in The Jakarta Post Sunday 28 June 2015)
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