http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4554&Itemid=404
Global Fallout on Indonesian Cancellation of Gaga Gig
Written by Our Correspondent
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Lady Gaga goes to Oz instead
Threat of radical violence to pop star continues to reverberate
Three days after rock diva Lady Gaga cancelled her sold-out concert on
concerns that Islamic militants might commit violence, the fallout continues in
Jakarta, with the two English-language dailies taking radically different
stances and with international dismay growing at the country’s rising
radicalism.
The abandonment of the concert by one of the world’s most popular pop
stars, provocative as she is, has earned the country, usually described as the
world’s most tolerant Muslim society, an international black eye. Some 52,000
tickets had been sold for the event, scheduled for Sunday. Although the
26-year-old singer has faced protests from Christian groups at her shows in the
Philippines and South Korea, they have been allowed to continue and have gone
off without incident. She was scheduled to fly to Jakarta after playing three
shows in Singapore, then fly to New Zealand and Australia and on to Europe.
Gaga issued an apology to her Indonesian fans on Twitter, saying she was
“just as devastated as you if not more. You are everything to me. I will try to
put together something special for you. My love for Indonesia has only grown.”
She had said earlier that she wouldn’t tone down her shows to accommodate the
Indonesian audience. Some 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslims, although just
how Muslim they are is open to question. Much of Indonesian Islam is a mixture
of animism and witchcraft. Other pop stars including Beyonce and the Pussycat
Dolls have performed there, although they reportedly agreed to tone down their
dress.
The cancellation of the concert is just one of many incidents in which
hardline Islamist groups, particularly the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI,
have threatened or used violence. They have particularly taken after Christians
and the Ahmidiyah Muslim sect although they often threaten women on the streets
for dressing in what they think is immodest fashion. They have also been known
to break up nightclubs. The FPI is widely thought to be closely connected to
the National Police, who are said to use them against groups or individuals
they don’t like. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has taken considerable
criticism from human rights groups in the country for not acting to curb what
most people say is an extremely small fringe of radicals. There are suspicions
that the police sometimes use the FPI to threaten violence as a means of
extortion from those who are threatened.
Following Gaga’s announcement, Salim Alatas, one of the FPI’s leaders,
was quoted in local media as calling the cancellation “a victory for Indonesian
Muslims. Thanks to God for protecting us from a kind of devil." The FPI had
vowed to bring thousands of protesters to Sukarno-Hatta International Airport
in Jakarta when the singer’s plane landed. Others said they had bought tickets
to the concert itself to try to wreak havoc during the performance.
The Indonesian government’s record on human rights was recently reviewed
by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in Geneva for increasing
cases of intolerance, with witnesses questioning the government’s commitment to
protect the rights of minorities and reduce the level of violence against
minorities.
Human Rights Watch complained in discussing the UN commission’s review
that “While Indonesia has made great strides in consolidating a stable,
democratic government after five decades of authoritarian rule, the country is
by no means a bastion of tolerance. The rights of religious and ethnic
minorities are routinely trampled. While Indonesia's Constitution protects
freedom of religion, regulations against blasphemy and proselytizing are
routinely used to prosecute atheists, Bahais, Christians, Shiites, Sufis and
members of the Ahmadiyah faith – a Muslim sect declared to be deviant in many
Islamic countries. By 2010, Indonesia had over 150 religiously motivated
regulations restricting minorities' rights.”
The Jakarta Globe apparently caused a revolt among its own staff with an
editorial condemning the singer and saying she had no place in Indonesia. That
kicked off hundreds of posts on the paper’s website, most of them condemning
the editorial and calling it an embarrassment to the paper’s reputation. One
reader called the editorial “the most controversial editorial ever being
published by the respected news site of Jakarta Globe,” adding that he had
“never before observed such an outrage in the comment section before, which can
only mean that readers do care.”
Across town, the Jakarta Post condemned the National Police for their
failure “to perform and exercise their constitutional mandate, at least in the
eyes of the promoter of the American singer’s first tour to Indonesia.” The
cancellation of the concert “”deals a major blow to the police’s reputation and
should lead the public to question the force’s much-vaunted reform agenda. With
all the powers that the police assumed following political reform in the late
1990s, come great responsibilities. The Lady Gaga saga, however, seemingly
proves the expectations wrong.”
By contrast the Globe editorial said the cancellation of the show “was
definitely the right decision.” It cited what it called many justifiable
reasons for opposing acts like the singer’s, “such as the messages these
supposed artists project. It is not about how she dresses, which is needlessly
provocative, but about what she sings and the lyrics of her songs. It is about
the lack of morality in what she represents.”
The country, the editorial said, “must accept that Indonesian society is
different and that we cannot be expected to be as liberal as other societies.”
The editorial had staff at the paper complaining openly on Facebook and
elsewhere about being embarrassed by the editorial and worrying that it
represents a shift in the Globe's journalistic standards
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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