Bali’s exotic dancers escape anti-porn crackdown
DENPASAR – Bali is set to snub new anti-porn laws and has set itself on a collision course with hardliners in Jakarta.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court last week turned down a judicial review of the controversial laws.
However, in a victory for Bali, the court ruled that traditional costumes and dances couldn’t be criminalised under the pornography law.
The judges said that while they upheld the law it did not apply to cultural traditions, literature, sport and science.
“Traditional dances and costumes cannot be categorised as porn products as they are part of Indonesian cultures,†judge Hamdan Zulfa told the court.
Some Indonesians fear the new law will be used by hardline groups to impose conservative Islamic values across the culturally diverse archipelago.
A clause in the law defines porn as “pictures, sketches, illustrations, photographs, articles, sounds, voices, moving pictures, animations, cartoons, conversations, body movements or other forms of messages through various communication mediums and/or public displays, that contain obscenity or sexual exploitation that violates community normsâ€.
Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said the laws went against the social and cultural norms of Bali and its people.
Quoted by Bali Update (www.balidiscovery.com) Pastika said that he personally does not favour the production of vulgar souvenirs in Bali, such as the widely sold key chains made in the shape of a male phallus. He, however, has no issue with tasteful representation of the female form.
Illustrating his point to the press, Pastika explained, “I served for years in Irian Jaya and have no reaction seeing a ‘Koteka’ (traditional penis gourd). It’s just a matter of taste.”
The governor said it would be an impossibility to implement the law in all regions of Indonesia.
To do so would necessitate the closing down of television and the Internet which often carry information and images that might be considered pornographic. Because of this, said Pastika, “the law is useless.”
Ian Jarrett
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