They Dont Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident

From a forum for expatriates in Indonesia:

A man, who is himself a Muslim and appears rather pious, somewhere in Aceh filed a lawsuit against exceedingly loud mosque loudspeakers (calls to prayer, sermons and other assorted blabbering are blasted whenever the mosque people feel like it).

A forum member, who is a westerner living in Aceh and apparently a convert to Islam commented:

It would be best if the mosques administration considered the man's request. They seem to believe that being loud encourages people to be more religious. The message should be clear and should not loudspeakers. We are encouraged to give da'wah through "beautiful" preaching. If it annoys that man and others then it is not acceptable.


Like I said before, the man's argument for a crowd in Aceh should not be based on "it's too loud." People here will interpret that as an attack on their values, an attack on Islam. Pointing out that it is not Sunnah is probably his best bet.

And with disconcerting punctuality, the mortally offended mob acted:

But Hasan, a Muslim, said despite being taken to see the deputy mayor and Muslim leaders, and then being escorted to the court where he was forced to withdraw his legal suit, he had ultimately won a rare victory. “I was forced to withdraw my lawsuit as an angry mob threatened to kill me,” he said. “But after I dropped my case, the volume was significantly turned down by about half.”

Still, the man achieved some success, and his health and property suffered no harm. At least so far...

Another member then remarked:

This last line suggest that it is a problem confined to Aceh due to sharia law. It ain't confined to Aceh, and it ain't due to sharia law.


The article is silent on why--in such a religious and ostensibly spiritual and holy milieu and among a people and religion that values consensus--the request to turn it down was met, not by dialogue or channeled through institutionalized peaceful mechanisms for handling grievances, but rather by intimidation and threats of violence and death. Something doesn't add up here.

I think I know why, pardon my arrogance.
  Most Muslims still have a primitive mindset in which there is no such thing as individual rights. Belief and doctrine and the collective (the Umma in this case) trump everything else.   Trampling over the desires, apsirations and even health of individuals is seen as perfectly fine when belief and rituals* are involeved.   Sadly, it is a fact that a lot of Muslims don't hold these truths to be self-evident, that that all men are equal, that they are endowed by their very humanity with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.**   And to quip:

If you want to deal with Muslims on their own turf you have to deal with them in terms they respect and understand.

Indeed. And when Muslims seem to understand and respect only being arrogant and brutal, what should we do?   Now I can agree with the concept that going off with a lawsuit rather that talking in person to the people involved (but are we sure the man complaining about the noise didn't try do it?) is irritating and can be seen and conflictual. But there's many ways to deal with it before threatening violence.

* Image is everything in Indonesia. You're not rich if you don't show it off; you're not pious if you don't make a spectacle of your piousness; you're not respectful of other people if you don't use the proper words. What goes on behind closed doors... well, that's a different matter.   ** Yes, it is slightly edited. For one with my ideas about life and universe and everything, this version makes more sense.

Killing a Bureucracy

With a rare move in an age where the universal answer to all problems seems to be "more bureaucracy", Indonesia instead is going to disband one:

The Constitutional Court declared Tuesday that the existence of upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas was unconstitutional because it degraded state control over natural resources.
 

The court’s panel of judges found BP Migas did not directly manage oil and gas and instead handed it over to state-owned companies or private companies through cooperation contracts. According to the judges, such a mechanism had limited access for the state to maximize the benefits of natural resource management for people’s welfare as stipulated in Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution.

But of course the regulations themselves are not going to disappear*:

The SKSPMigas task force was quickly created by the government after the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of BPMigas in a verdict issued on Nov. 13 that declared the body unconstitutional.

The court ordered the government, namely the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, to temporarily take over the functions of the erstwhile regulatory bureau until a new permanent body could formed under a planned revision to the 2001 Oil and Gas Law or until the formulation of a new law.

The easiest prediction is that most of the higher-ups of BP Migas will recycle themselves in the ESDM or within new agencies that may be formed for the purpose of regulating oil & gas industry. So not much will change, network of connections included. Or some new folks will start receiving invitations for get-togethers from the same old businesses.

*In my position I know quite well the damage that oil spillages and other accidents can cause, so you won't find me supporting a "let's pump this oil out of the ground and who cares" approach.

Jakarta's Elections

Why, you wonder, I'd want to talk about Indonesian politics?

Strange, but I just feel like it.

The latest election to Governor of the Province of Jakarta (DKI, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta - Jakarta Capital City Special Area) was won by the couple Joko Widodo (Jokowi) - Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok)* against the incumbent Fauzi Bowo (Foke) - Nachrowi Ramli.

Jokowi is a sort of newcomer even if he belongs to a political party tracing back to the Sukarno times. However, he came from a businessman background while Foke has been a political activist since his university years - in the Golkar party which instead dates back to Suharto.

The electoral campaign saw some very dirty moments, mostly between first and second round**, with the only argument against Jokowi - Ahok being that Jakartans should be ruled by Jakartans and Muslims by Muslims. Especially the second part is a nonsense because Jokowi is Muslim; only is running mate is of Chinese descent and a Protestant.

But that wasn't enough and Jokowi won by a significant majority across all areas of Jakarta (except the Thousand Islands¹) and across all religions - with an enormous majority among Protestants and a thin one among Muslims.

Jokowi comes from a story of considerable success as Major of Surakarta (or Solo) in Central Java; while Foke is seen as a failure regarding the improvement of the horrendous situation of road congestion in Jakarta and other parts of his program.

Probaly, Indonesian people are also fed up with the level of corruption among high-ranking officers² and preferred a fresh face and approach to a 100% establishment man.

Jokowi's policies would be seen as socialist by some, especially Americans, but one must keep in mind that being poor in America means not being able to afford organic vegetables in a posh store and aircon in the house; being poor in Jakarta means living in a rickety bamboo shed perched on the banks of a filthy river with no sanitation nor running water.

But in the end only time will tell if Jakartans have chosen well. For the time being, Jokowi started well obtaining the city government to slash the budget for his inauguration ceremony.


*For all positions from Head of Village to President of the Republic, there is a head and a deputy.

**No candidate won an absolute majority in the first round so a runoff was held, for reasons I do not know, a couple of months after the first round.

1-Kepulauan Seribu, literally Archipelago of a Thousand Islands.

2-While still practicing it at a low level.

Self-Satirizing News

From Indonesia:

Nowadays, people are witnessing the Holy Koran being corrupted not only on the interpretation of its content, but also on its procurement.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named Golkar lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar a suspect in the alleged corruption of the Koran procurement project at the Religious Affairs Ministry.

The scandal may implicate other lawmakers.

Last year, the KPK released a survey stating that the ministry was among the most corrupt government institutions, reminding the public of a long list of graft scandals in an institution that has repeatedly been led by so-called “devout people”. Kyais and ulemas have headed the institution, such as Wahid Hasyim, Mukti Ali, Munawir Sadzali, Tolchah Hasan, Quraish Shihab and Said Agil Husin Al Munawar.

However, the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Said Agil Husin Al Munawar, who is known as a hafiz (a person who has memorized the entire contents of the Koran), to five years’ imprisonment in 2006 for his involvement in a graft scandal in managing the Dana Abadi Umat trust fund, or haj fund of the past.

No need to comment further.

Update 17:00:
In other news:

YOGYAKARTA: Hundreds of local people in the village of Candi Binangun in Sleman regency’s Pakem district, flocked to the pasar murah (low-priced market), jointly organized by the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) and PT Sinar Mas, to purchase palm oil sold at reduced prices on Sunday.


The discount market program was aimed at anticipating the food crisis and offsetting the spike in prices of basic food commodities, including cooking oil, that usually occurs in the lead-up to the Ramadhan fasting month, said G. Sulistiyanto, the managing director of Sinar Mas.

Comments to the article?

Typical.


This is an oil which has fats that should be limited just like trans fats; they clog your arteries and can lead to heart problems.

In addition, production of palm oil is leading to deforestation.

Such a program should not be a welcome relief for residents in the face of rising obesity, heart disease and the well-being of the rain forests of Indonesia.

STARVE A JAVANESE, SAVE HIM AND SAVE GAIA!

Muka Poker

Which means "poker face" in Indonesian... seems fitting to these news:

The US pop diva Lady Gaga’s scheduled concert fiasco proves that certain hard-line groups have been successfully pushing local authorities to meet their demands, indirectly controlling the nation, a Muslim scholar says.


Rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University Komaruddin Hidayat told The Jakarta Post that certain groups within society had successfully influenced the government to intervene against Indonesian’s freedom of expression, adding that authorities should have protected it.

“This is a setback and a pathetic situation in which we find the public sphere where Indonesians should be able to express themselves without restraint in fact faces intervention from one community that has become a powerful force in this nation,” he said Wednesday morning.

He added that while hard-liner groups had pressured the authorities, several members of the government apparently had relented to their demands, saying that it was a “politically correct” move to do.

“This situation proves that there are fraudulent officials that have been using the hard-liner groups to further their own political interests,” he said.

The reaction of many common people to this story is "Why such a big deal of Lady Gaga while there's also Indonesian singers doing indecent things on stage?".
And if you want to see what I'm talking about, do a Youtube search with the words "dangdut panas".

Not that the Islamic ballbusters have nothing to say about this erotic dangdut stuff, but the antagonism to Lady Gaga reached paroxystic levels. Some time ago the FPI staged a demonstration - honestly pathetic, but it seems effective - where they called her an "illuminati robot". David Icke must be proud.

Hipocrisy, stupidity, lack of logic, the usal shit.

Update 21/05: However, if you think that the Muslims are the only ones detesting Lady Gaga, you are wrong. In South Korea and the Philippines the Catholics made a big fuss about this singer's concerts.

Citizens' Defense Force

Who said that citizens cannot use self defense against mobsters and organized crime? If there's enough of them, and angry enough, they can mount a significant resistance:

Two members of a gang led by detained leader John Kei reportedly died in a clash with residents of Jl. Rawa Bambu, Tytyan Indah, Kalibaru, Bekasi, West Java, on Tuesday morning.[...]
The wounded man (a mobster who harassed locals and was fought off, ed.) later returned to the scene with other gang members to search for his attacker. During their search, they attacked Septian Yahya Saputra, 19, who suffered knife wounds to his back, head and left hand. Septian was later treated at Ananda Hospital in Bekasi.
Enraged by the attack, about 200 residents mobbed a gang member’s house in the Tytyan Indah housing complex on Monday evening.

Only problem is, Indonesain villagers are even too ready to use this kind of violence: against members of other tribes/religions, people accused of sorcery, policemen mistaken (more or less deliberately) as thieves etc.

Other strange news from Indonesia, by the way. "Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s biggest Muslim organization", last year held this ceremony:

Chairman Saiful Chalim of NU Surabaya branch said on Friday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com that his organization wanted Muslim people to understand carefully that the concept of jihad was not merely a war against infidels.
“In 1945, NU called on its adult members to perform jihad by joining Indonesian soldiers fighting against the Netherlands and Britain. This monument will be a reminder of our past struggle and the meaning of jihad,” Chalim said.

Now they oppose the notorious FPI:

JAKARTA: The country’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), says it has thrown its weight behind a new outfit set up to counter the onslaught of firebrand organizations like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).

NU secretary-general Marsudi Suhud said that the new outfit, called the Ahlussunnah Wal Jamaah (Aswaja) militia, had a similar mission to that of the NU in promoting pluralism, moderation and justice.

“The two institutions must work together to protect the ideology of pluralism against those who threaten violence and use bullying to scare off the public,” Marsudi said in a statement.

Vanity Wordlwide

I thought that Indonesia was still a land of rude tough men (except the very common effeminate gays) all devoted to things like keris, silat, islamic prayers, driving motorbikes like they want to meet their creator as soon as possible and other manly activities.

Instead, every single time I go to the mall's toilet there is at least one young - or not so young either - man very intent at adjusting his hairstyle with water and/or hairgel. At peak hours, there's almost a queue in front of the mirror, people arranged in a staggered manner so that even those behind the first row can go on with their grooming.

Me? One advantage of a high-and-tight haircut is that it doesn't need adjusting.

Observing the world

Recently I observed a couple of interesting facts.

First observation.
Yesterday, I and my wife were in a photocopy shop, and there was something odd about the young man besides me at the till. I looked at him more carefully and noticed that his t-shirt had bunched up revealing the butt of a handgun protruding from his jeans' waistline.

Now, the shop is a couple of doors away from a police station, so I thought he most likely is a cop. Regular Indonesian cops carry a revolver - model and maker unknown, but it has medium barrel and the caliber looks like .357 Mag.

After the man walked out, I told my wife of my discovery so she enquired with the store clerks. Yes, that armed man is indeed a police officer, one belonging to what they called intelligence and supposed to be plainclothed. But if he carries like that, many will notice.

Second observation.
This morning I heard the noise of a high-flying airplane, so I looked up and spotted this airplane flying among cirrus clouds. At first it was flying right trough the cloud, then it moved above (or, more likely, the cloud wasn't all at the same altitude), and so I could see the shadow of the plane projected on the cloud below.

And, the jetliner's turbulent wake tore through the cirrus leaving the characteristic curly pattern that persisted for quite a few minutes.

More Acronyms

Here's a couple more Indonesian acronyms:

YONIF = Batalyon Infanteri (Infantry Battallion)
MIRAS = Minuman Keras (lit. Hard Drinks; alcoholic beverages)
JABODETABEK = Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi (Jakarta and its conurbation)

How They Speak Here #2

Indonesians are very fond of acronyms too. Not as pathologically fond as Americans are, but acronyms are very common here, even more so in the official-bureaucratic language.
Although they are built with more flair, I'd say, and most of the times in order to pronunciable.

Here's a brief, incomplete and disorderly list:

POLRI = Polisi Republik Indonesia (Police of the Republic of Indonesia)
MABES = Markas Besar (Headquarters)
POLDA = Polisi Daerah (Local Police)
DIRJEN = Direktorat Jenderal (General Directorate)

JABAR = Jawa Barat (The province of West Java)
KALTIM = Kalimantan Timur (The province of East Kalimantan)
And so on for almost all provinces of Indonesia.
PLANGI = Plaza Semanggi (a shopping mall in Jakarta)
SENCI = Senayan City (another shopping mall)
MONAS = Monumen Nasional (the sort of obelisk in the center of Jakarta)

SEMBAKO = Sembilan Bahan Pokok (Nine necessary ingredients: fundamental foodstuffs such as rice, oil, milk, salt, flour ecc.)
BAB = Buang Air Besar (Defecating)
TOSERBA or TOSERA = Toko Serbaguna (Supermarket)
ANGKOT = Angkutan Kota (Minibuses)
PERSIB = Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Bandung (the football team from the city of Bandung)

More will, maybe, follow.

Indipendece Day 66

66 years of indipendnece for the Republic of Indonesia

This is a video of the Proclamation of Indipendence, 17 August 1945.



Today, the TV is all a flourish of historical and nationalistic programs, and red-and-white (merah putih) flags are all over the place.

Indonesia is a nationalistic country, and that may come as a shock to Europeans especially, where nationalism is regarded at least as unfashionable, if not stupid and evil.

Yet, there is little xenophobia and in fact among the middle class at least foreign fashion and food and culture in general are widely appreciated.

Anyway, my experience as a foreigner in Indonesia tells me that a foreigner will usually be well accepted if he is willing to do some effort to learn the local language and uses, and liking Indonesian food is definitely a plus.

So I roll my eyes when I read things like that Obama is loved by Indonesians because he was - or secretly still is - a Muslim.

Obama has stated time and again - and in good Indonesian, even - that he liked Indonesia, and the food there, very much as a kid: that will surely earn him some approval. Also, my wife says that "star appropriation" is at play: Indonesians want Obama to appear as Indonesian as it can be so that some of his fame and popularity will reflect on Indonesia itself.

I hope this last part is clear.

Bendera Kuning

In Indonesia is is customary to fly a bright yellow flag as a sign of grievance for a death.

Now there is one such flag flying in front of my in-laws' house.

Those who follow my blog can easily guess whose death it was; those who don't, do not need to spend much time guessing.

I'll be back later.

Asking The Imam

Dear Imam,

Is it permitted for a young Muslim mother to go to the supermarket wearing an appropriate jilbab, yes, and a dress that surely covers wrists and ankles but at the same time is so tight around the buttocks that it can be seen she's wearing a thong underneath?

Yours respectfully
The Second Version

This post is inspired by true events.

How They Speak Here

Indonesian language belongs to the Austronesian family, so it is"_blank" as far as it can be from Indo-european languages, despite the large number of words borrowed from Dutch.

One of the most glaring differences if that Indonesian has no gender. While European languages have at least masculine and feminine, and sometimes also neutral, Indonesian has none of the above.

Nouns are all... well, genderless, but there are specific words for male and female persons, such as:

putri (daughter)
putra (son)

cewek (girl, woman in general)*
cowok (boy, man in general)

There are more along these lines, but these are among the most common. How is speaking a language so different? Not so difficult for me in fact; my vocabulary is still limited but I have grasped grammar and syntax well enough already.

* These two words are rather informal; the correct ones would be perampuan and laki.

Indonesia Is Not Hoplophobic

Here I am, still with some ideas but not much time or inspiration to put them in a written form.

However, I have a practical observation: Indonesians are in general not hoplophobic. When weapons of any kind or firearms are mentioned, more or less all people I know do not cower in fear and neither give me a tirade on the inherent evilness of weapons and the baseness of people using them.

Anyway, this is an ad airing on Indonesian TV these days:

TV Nights

I swear, I had something really quirky and amusing ready to be written down, but now my mind is empty. Blank. Devoid.

Anyway, if you're into Stallone and/or Steven Seagal, Indonesian TV is your heaven.

On the channel Trans TV, yesterday they showed Rambo 3 and Nighthawks back to back. The day before it was Rambo 2 and that other classic, Tango & Cash. The day before that? Of course, First Blood, and then I don't know because I slept early. Too bad Demolition Man has been missing for a while, because the depiction of a possible future castrated society was delightful.

And tonight it's Fire Down Below followed by On Deadly Ground. But I can't stand Seagal after his ecologist/mistic turn.

Too bad Chuck Norris instead is not popular, because I'd enjoy another dose of Lone Wolf for sure.

That Is Genius

Today I watched some Indonesian TV: after the serious news, some time was devoted to curiosities - such as two frogs sticking together found in Bali, a family in Sulawesi growing the smallest banana tree (20 cm tall), a village somewhere with an exceedingly high concentration of dwarfs, and so on.

One segment talked about talk show fights and features footage from the USA, Japan and possibly other countries. Anyway, the soundtrack of this piece sounded definitaly metallic, and on further listening it turned out to be Caught in a Mosh, by Anthrax.

Anthrax. On TV at noon. The soundtrack of a piece about talk show fights. Someone in that TV station is a bloody genius.

The Face of Corruption

It is known, and it is true, that Indonesia is a country where corruption runs rampant.

But for everyday life what does it mean? How do you run your errands under heavily corrupted institutions?

The face of high-level corruption can be this Gayus fellow with his infamous wig.
But this is an enormous case, it involves police officers and immigration officers and the Direktorat Jenderal Pajak - the taxmen, the equivalent of the IRS for Americans.

Anyway, for the Gayus case you can start from here and reconstruct the whole story.

What about the low-level corruption then? Its face can be the one of the properly veiled lady at the immigration office who asked Rp. 250 000 (roughly 25 USD) to process my visa extension application within the same day rather than in the couple of days it normally takes.

Or it can be the face of the head of some administrative division - there is no equivalent for that in Europe or the States, so don't ask me to explain - who signed a domicily letter for my wife. When asked - by a mediator - why a simple signature costed Rp. 100 000, he replied that he had spent billions to be elected there, and now he has to take back that money somehow, during his five years in office.

So there you go, with bribes and wheel-greasing.

Bigotry For Everyone

I wrote before that my experience with Muslims here in Indonesia has been positive: the months passed since then have only confirmed my opinion.

I know that there are violent extremists here, but so far I have not met one in person. Muslims here are not saints, but their virtues and vices fall well within the normal bounds of human nature.

But this posts is about bigotry. Before I touch that argument, however, I have to provide some backstory.

Around mid-July 2010, my mother-in-law suffered a bad stroke and she has been in a vegetative state ever since. She spent nearly one month at the hospital in critical conditions; during that period of time I and my in-laws took turns to stay with her, and it is only through the generosity of friends and relatives that the bills have been paid. Now she is at home in her own room, attended 24/7 by two nurses; she still requires many medicines and treatments. Hopes for her improvement are, sadly, close to nonexistent.

Many people have prayed a lot for my mother-in-law; catholics and protestants and muslims and the odd buddhist; they prayed to different gods but for the same end.

My in-laws were so stricken that when one nurse said that her boyfriend who is into magic and supernatural can perform rituals to rid my mother-in-law of the evil spirits making her sick and to protect the house from more spirits, they agreed. The sorcerer performed the rituals, got paid good money but nothing much happened – I guess he's just a crook playing on people's grief.

So the family tried another avenue, a protestant minister who claims to able to perform another sort of ritual – I don't know the details of it, but it is said to end with the sick person either recovering or finally passing away. The pastor came and asked many questions, about the family and eventual supernatural events that occurred. But then, instead of going on with the ritual he became incensed at the fact that my relatives display many crosses and images of Jesus and Virgin Mary around the house. He found that very offensive, to the point that he refused to perform the ritual unless those sacred images were not just put away, but disposed of. The unsaid response to his request was that he can stuff it.

The minister's conclusion was that first my parents-in-law attracted evil upon themselves studying pranotherapy (which is a technique for healing people through natural energy) some years ago, and then the sorcerer left even more powerful evil spirits around.

Now, one of the nurses is a Muslim – devoted it seems, because she prays five times a day, but she prefers to wear shorts and t-shirt rather than the veil. Religion has never been an issue in our daily dealings – well, except when I boiled a piece of ham, and she wouldn't use that pot for her own food even after washing. The other Muslim around the house is the maid who comes in a few hours per day to cook food and do the chores; she is a friend of the family to the point she refused another job offer because she thinks that we are more in need of a hand.

Recently, the family invited another minister to come and pray; he did so but he also offered some bizarre suggestions to improve the situation. He said that we should pour lard oil all around the house to neutralize the sorcerer's spell (apparently those supernatural beings survive on a strictly halal diet). Also, he said that the sorcerer's girlfriend has evil spirits in herself, so we should secretly rub the patient with lard oil to act as a barrier and to make the nurse uncomfortable until she'd eventually leave. Moreover, he said, there should be no Muslims in the house.

Now, however you slice it, tainting a Muslim with haram products is a lowly trick and the suggestion of a muslim-free house smacks of bigotry – especially when the persons that should be excluded have in fact been loyal hard-workers.

I told my story, now you decide how to place it in your universe.

President Rockstar - SE Asia Tour

One should see the coverage of Obama's visit on Indonesian TV to believe it.

It was a litany of Obama's ex-teacher, ex-playmate, ex-this and ex-that, and the house where he lived in Jakarta and the food he liked (nasi goreng, bakso and sate) for hours on end.

Quite obsessive, and more like the treatment given to celebrities and entertainment stars than heads of state.