Pelopor.nl

Sex and money,the best there is

“What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
“My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
“The waters? What water? We’re in the desert.”
“I was misinformed.”

A considerable amount of Indonesian bloggers actually lives in the US. Their condition is perfect for probing observations. The American ways may provoke questions like “why on earth are they doing this?” Astonishingly one can hardly find any example of these kind of inquiries. Maybe because politeness towards a host is too much engrained in their national character.

But they also can see the home front with distance, with more independence and objectivity. And precisely that they do. One can find a lot of critical comments on the mannerisms and shortcomings in the present Archipelago. Especially three articles caught my attention.

Tasa, also known as Guebukanmonyet is a very prolific blogger. He is a young student, living in or around Washington. His articles are mainly in Bahassa Indonesia, but occasionally an English entry pops up. He is young, vigorous and with a subtle but tenacious pedagogic zeal. I would like to characterize his site as edifying educational. In favour of modernity, but communicating this in a conservative, prudent way -. a follower of the paradigm that can be summed up like “new ideas can only be introduced under an accepted label”. He puts subjects on his agenda which some at home consider touchy or even taboo. He does so with care, very prudent, trying to avoid outright confrontation. But fortunately he often manages to outwit the never-far-away religion. I guess his format is a success – at least his audience is growing and his columns provoke lively discussions.

“Karena aku objek seksmu”, sets an example. It is, at least in my opinion, a very balanced, clever and even cunning column about the dress code of women in Indonesian Islam. Tasa tells his fellow believers that he is with them on this generally and in principle – in his view Indonesian women are doing best if they stick to demure dressing or even to dressing primly, veils included. But at the same time he presents the grounds and reasons why westerners criticize this. He even kind of acknowledges that sexy dressing is not equal to immorality. The message being: western style women who dress sexy are different but not bad. In general I conclude from this and many other articles that (a) there exists a enormous gap between the Indonesian reality ( in which sex and sexuality play a large part) and the official moral dogma’s and (b) that an almost obsessive -but furtive- argument about and interest in sex related subjects, is going on in all veins of the society.

An other favourite of mine is a think tank by Beni Bevli. He is a weathered career manager and intellectual who by means of his site wants to “facilitate intellectuals to contribute to Indonesia”. He is aiming high; in his opinion the Indonesian reality calls for drastic changes. His analytical diagnosis is rather dramatic – the official political, social and economic reality is just an illusion. The proud, even superior, claims of national perfection, is totally at odds with everyday life. His goal is to produce analytical and critical reflections on the problems the country is coping with. In that way the public opinion as well as the policies of the government, should be influenced.

Two of the recent articles spring to mind. There has been a series of articles on the Wonosobo mass graves. They are about coming to terms with the bloody coup by Suharto in 1965. But even more at heart is the very recent one on money . On the distribution of money that is.

The country’s economic growth seems to be at a sound level (6 – 7% annually) and inflation is under control (about 6%). It is what might have been expected; free market economy did not skip Indonesia. Private equity is having a ball these days – not only private but also public companies fall in their hands. It is like reading the scenario’s described in “The Shock Doctrine“. . No wonder the richest rich get richer and the poor masses poorer. And that the number of poor keep on rising by the millions, that the unemployment rate almost doubled (nearing 13% now), that almost 20% of the children never attend school and over 35% only will finish elementary school. At the same time Suharto may be a rival to Bill Gates as it comes to wealth, while for all but a few of the 241 million Indonesian these are worrying economical times.

Among my absolutely best reads on my cyberspace Odyssey also ranks Merlyna Lim’s outstanding weblog . She herself says “it is written without thinking much”. Frankly I don’t believe her. But on second thoughts… she is the author of a very, very long list of publications. One of them is her dissertation (“cum laude”!) fascinatingly called “@rchipelago online: the internet and political activism in Indonesia” (I have to lay hands on it soon!). At that time ( 2005) she was at Universiteit Twenthe . By the way: presently she is employed as an assistant professor in Arizona – not a bad start of a career when you’re still in your twenties.

Her site in a sense is a traditional one – kind of a diary. Quite a range of personal subjects can be found here. But it is not boring. It is just the opposite: an exciting account of a moveable professional life. And it is full of intelligent reflections on issues that deserve the attention of intellectuals. Like this one by Merlyna Lim for instance. It’s quite to my taste – pointing out that rulers tend to do the opposite of what they should do. In stead of giving protection to those who need it, they often prefer to take measures to control them. In this case the sex life of Indonesian citizens threatens to be invaded by peeping John officials. Based on the philosophical groundwork of Michel Foucault , this article convincingly bashes these plans of the government in Jakarta. I can’t but agree with her. These plans reflect once more the obsessive urge to keep the eroding taboos on sex, especially on homo erotic sex, in tact. That’s bad because it is discriminatory, it is a breach of human rights, it is reactionary and counterproductive. It is good some try to save the Indonesian government from taking utterly stupid actions.

If there is one thing I have been learning during my visits to these Indonesian weblogs, it is there is an abundance of intelligent energy waiting to be used for the benefit of RI. Let’s hope they can take over soon.