Indonesia Update by Kenneth Conboy

For the past two years, conservative Islamic parties in Indonesia, often supported by paramilitary religious groups known for their intolerance in an otherwise tolerant, diverse society, have been periodically pushing to have elements of Islamic Law become the law of the land.

This time, social critics are pushing back. On 3 December, a diverse group of activists—including many from mainstream Islamic groups—urged the country’s legislative branch to reject the proposed legislation.

What makes the debate noteworthy is the way that the Islamic hardliners have been able to disguise their end-game. In a brilliant political move, they penned a so-called “Anti-Pornography Bill” that would ostensibly protect women and children from the scourges associated with pornography.

In fact, the anti-pornography angle was just a veil. According to the authors of the document, pornography is vaguely defined to include just about anything that would offend their hyper-caffeinated moral sensitivities. Many forms of women’s bathing suits, for example, would suddenly become illegal. Any publications or works of art that showed all but a fully-dressed female form, too, would conceivably be off limits. So would many cultural events, such as those in tourist destinations like Bali.

Worse, the bill calls on “all parties” to protect morality. This has been seen as a call to arms for the Islamic Defenders Front and their ilk, which have made a name for themselves raiding nightspots during the Ramadhan fasting month.

Secular political groups oppose this shift, which they correctly note would undermine the nation’s cultural diversity. But because of the name of the bill, they are often left having to explain why they are defending “pornography.”

The current administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meantime, is doing precious little to maintain the status quo—in no small part because the fragile ruling coalition contains some of the very political parties that wrote the bill in the first place.

No date has been set for the final debate on the Anti-Pornography Bill. But with presidential campaigning set to unofficially start next year (the election is not until 2009), hard-line Islamic parties will probably try to flex their muscles—and make another push for passage of the bill—within the next two quarters.

In other news in Indonesia, a court in South Jakarta on 3 December sentenced six Islamic militants for a series of terrorist acts in Sulawesi, including the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls and the murder of a priest. The extremists got up to nineteen years in prison, though in the Indonesian justice system they could conceivably be freed in a fraction of that time.

At least one of the militants was unrepentant after his sentencing. “Eighteen years is not a problem,” he said. “There will be a more noble trial before God.”