http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060401.B01&irec=1
Will the real government of RI please stand up! B. Herry-Priyono, Jakarta Imagine you were a newcomer to Indonesia. Like any new arrival in a new place, the first few weeks may be filled with excitement about newly found experiences. Then the reality principle sets in, and these days you probably would observe a brouhaha caused by fierce fights over a bill on pornography. Back home, such a bill may be a matter of fact, for it is simply common sense that the sales of pornographic materials must be regulated. So, why such a fuss? This is a land of the extremes. Many aspects of public life in Indonesia have recently been pounded by a wave of extremism. The need for a strong government has been turned into authoritarianism, the expansion of a market economy has been taken as a license for market fundamentalism, and the clamor for civil society has been twisted into communal tribalism. The controversy over the porn bill is part of the story, not of authoritarianism and market fundamentalism, but of communal tribalism. As many observers have correctly noted, the bill has nothing to do with the regulation of pornography. My colleague at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Franz Magnis-Suseno, has offered an acid test. If indeed the bill has something to do with that noble effort, it must be able to distinguish between "pornography", "sensuality" and "eroticism". Nay, the bill has failed the test, and failed miserably (The Jakarta Post, March 10, 2006). What is the bill about then? It is here that opinions differ. Not a few accounts seem to have understood the issue as rooted in the problem of state authoritarianism, and the porn bill is simply another case of the stubbornly authoritarian state that refuses to die out. In the process of firming up its grip, the state is trying, yet again, to encroach on the private lives of citizens in matters of how to dress and present their bodies or parts of their bodies in public. In this view, the struggle is directed against the draconian tendency of the state, and the banners are littered with "state terrorism" jargons. Of course, a struggle against the porn bill has to start from somewhere. And if the starting point is a resistance against state authoritarianism, so be it. But as the causal factors begin to show up more plainly, it is somewhat clear that calling the porn bill a form of state authoritarianism is like barking up the wrong tree. Let us start with a simple question: who is the state? The state does not and cannot act! It is the people within the state institutions who act. To say that "the state encroaches on the private lives of the citizens" is simply shorthand for saying that "policy makers within the state institutions" do so. But who are these policy makers? Are they people from the executive, legislative or judiciary bodies? In all likelihood, there is not even a uniform voice; not within the legislative, the executive or judiciary branches. In many respects, branding the porn bill state terrorism is like calling an empty room a terrorist. The state is an arena, quite like a boxing ring. As much as the boxing is conducted by the boxers, and not by the arena, so is the porn bill devised not by the state, but by the people within the state institutions. These people may assemble in one, two, three or many political parties, or they could assemble as an alliance of diverse interests. In any case, it is against this specific alliance, and not against the state as an impersonal institution, that the struggle should be waged. No doubt the task of identifying the political alliance that thoughtlessly advances the porn bill is wrought with dangers. Very often the truth in politics can be gauged not from what appears, but from a hypothetical image that has plausibility in the visceral world. So, let us imagine that for sometime I have been running a political party in a country called Megalomania, whose population suffers so much from miseria (misery). In the process of winning the support of grassroots citizens, I could not but base the platform of my party on a compassionate ideology. But of course, motive plays a quite outrageous part in politics. It is only me and my trusted lieutenants who know exactly that the time has arrived for the party to launch a more specific agenda, that is, to conquer the land of Megalomania with a rule based on what is written in the Holy Book that I and my lieutenants believe. Other people may call it theocracy or religious bigotry, but let them go to hell, for I and my lieutenants call it a purified way of practicing religion. After the tireless work done by my followers at the grassroots level, there seems to be enough support for a showdown. For sometime I have observed that the pages and screens of the media in the Republic of Megalomania have been crowded out by a certain orgy of carnal knowledge, which may be part of the application of market fundamentalism in the media industry. This orgy of carnal knowledge is strictly outlawed by the sacred texts of my Holy Books. For some time my supporters have infiltrated several religious groups that will back my cause. In a series of concerted moves, I command my supporters to start working, and those in the legislature with a specific mission of pushing the anti-pornography bill. Of course there will be strong resistance. But I have asked my followers to re-direct and turn it into anti-state protests. This country has a vivid image of authoritarianism, and it is good that the minds of those activists and intellectuals remain stuck to this anti-state authoritarianism way of thinking and talking. The louder they yell "state terrorism" slogans for the bill I have masterminded, the better. My lieutenants and I will be able to hide safely then. As for the President, why on earth is he so quiet? I hope he is aware that when the porn bill is called "state terrorism", it is his government that is accused of being a terrorist. Will the real government please stand up, and help to grill the porn bill? The writer is a postgraduate lecturer at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Jakarta. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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