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Marwaan Macan-Markar
JAKARTA, Nov 21 (IPS) – An exhibition of sculpture that opened here this month offers a stark reminder of the importance of the human form in Indonesian art.
After all this is a country — especially on its island of Bali — with a rich Hindu tradition and it is possible to encounter ancient works in stone that celebrate naked and semi-naked figures. Tourist shops offer another ubiquitous Bali motif: the brown wooden penis.
Phallic symbols, which are associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, were never taken amiss in this South-east Asian archipelago that has the world’s largest Muslim population. The Islamic faithful in this country
of nearly 230 million people have a reputation for being open, tolerant and inclusive.
The over 40 works in wood by the 51-year-old Ibnu Nurwanto, now on display at the Taman Ismail Marzuki art centre’s Galeri Cipta, gives a contemporary twist to this artistic tradition. He achieves this, for example, through a sculpture done in deep red mahogany of a male waist with an erect penis. It is titled ‘Yang Mulia’, which, in the national language Bahasa Indonesia, means, ‘Your Highness’.
Another sculpture, this time carved from the lighter-coloured wood from the jack-fruit tree, focuses on the inner thighs of a woman, to complete the three-dimensional work. It is titled ‘Yang Terindah’, meaning ‘The Most Beautiful’.
Elsewhere is a work of a woman, her back arched backwards, in the throes of an orgasm. Set against it is an incomplete shape of a naked woman who appears to be suffering. There are also figures that look hungry and desperate.
But what is the future of similar expositions that focus on male and female sexuality? Can they be shown in public venues after 2009 dawns?
These are the questions some in Indonesia are grappling with in the wake of a far-reaching anti-pornography law that the parliament passed on Oct. 30. Over 100 parliamentarians from two opposition parties walked
out of the legislature before the vote on the bill, which could become law by December if there are no objections by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The final bill was a watered-down version of the original draft that would have made wearing bikinis in tourist resorts a crime. It also had to accommodate traditions in West Papua, where men still wear penis gourds.
But even after the many revisions, the anti-pornography bill appeared broad in scope, declaring that works and ‘’bodily movements” considered obscene and insulting to public morality will be tantamount to a crime.
‘’Nudity or appearances that gives an impression of nudity,” such as skimpily clad women in local glossy magazines, are no more acceptable.
The bill, pushed by conservative Muslim parties like the
Prosperous Justice Party (or PKS, in Indonesian) and the Crescent Star Party (or PBB), also leaves open the possibility of vigilantism, where radical Muslims could mount pressure on the authorities to ban events or
images they deem pornographic.
‘’This bill probably reflects a majority sentiment in Indonesia, particularly when it is portrayed that to be against the bill is to be pro-pornography,” says Sidney Jones, head of the South-east Asia section of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
‘’The bill goes deep into the Muslim mainstream. There is an increasing push from some Muslim groups and some Muslim parties to give the state a greater role in legislating morality.”
But it also reveals how conservative Muslims are using the new found freedoms that the country has witnessed a decade after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, which held Indonesia in an oppressive grip for over 30 years.
‘’One of the things that democracy has offered is a space
for different voices in the political spectrum to emerge.
And the radicals are using this space, as the bill shows,” Jones added during an interview here.
Such trends are even taking root in the country’s large secular parties like Golkar, which threw its weight behind the anti-pornography bill. ‘’There has been a kind of Islamisation of Golkar,” Jones revealed. ‘’The political parties are under pressure from an active civil society
movement on the Muslim right.”
This shift is raising fears that Indonesia is inching closer to emulate its Muslim neighbour Malaysia, where Islam is recognised as the state religion.
That would mean abandoning the regional giant’s national ideology of ‘pancaseela’, which seeks to embraces the country’s diversity and remain moderate through its five pillars. They are; belief in a single god, support for Indonesian unity, promotion of a just and civilised humanity, advancement of representative government and push for social justice.
‘’These are signs of Indonesia searching for a new Islamic identity. At some point we have to ask if Indonesia wants to go the Malaysian way,” says Yuli Ismartono, executive editor of ‘Tempo’, a weekly current affairs magazine known for its independence and trenchant criticism. ‘’The country is under pressure from a strong, vocal minority. These radicals claim it is their right to push such bills.”
And it is not that Indonesian law ignored public concerns about pornography before. ‘’The criminal code has laws dealing with pornography. There is also a media law that forbids pornography,” Yuli told IPS. ‘’Why a new anti-pornography law?”
But supporters of the bill welcome its passage in the legislature as a much-needed barrier to contain what they view as a spread of ‘’commercial” pornography.
‘’There are concerns by parents about the spread of pornography and performances by singers that includes a kind of striptease on the stage during their shows,” says Azyumardi Azra, vice chancellor and professor of Islam at Jakarta’s State Islamic University. ‘’The target of the law is commercial pornography, because it can arouse sexuality.”
Concerns that the law is a swing towards a more conservative Islam are unfounded, he said during an interview. ‘’There is some misunderstanding. This is not based on Islamic law or shariah. This law is not a contradiction of pancaseela,” Azyumardi explained.
Nor, he added, would the law crush the culture of the non-Muslim communities in Bali and West Papua, just two regions in a country that has some 300 ethnic groups. ‘’Traditional clothing and the cultures of
the ethnic groups are not included in the law. They have no reason to fear.”
All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.
