Sex & drugs & rock & roll

Each time his Excellency minister Tifatul Sembiring is in the media I get this cheerful mood. I can’t help since he often is extremely and irresistibly funny. He is the Cerberus of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law – which apparently also can be used as an auxiliary Anti Pornography law. Just imagine how hard he would bark if he would read Keith Richards’ fascinating ( and well written) autobiography “Life” – a detailed account of Rock ‘Roll lifestyle.

Last week the minister announced the government will put up an extra effort to safeguard Indonesians from internet-porn during the month of fasting. Actually he repeated his promise to free the nation of porn on www altogether. Everything to protect the innocence of boys and men ( and women, I assume). Millions of juicy sites will be blocked. Which to me seems to be a brave or even daring statement. After all there is both a tsunami of porn supply and a huge Indonesian demand. Usually that means there is a promising market. No wonder that, ranking by the numbers of devoted customers, the archipelago wins the bronze medal in the world championship.

Titaful may be a joker sometimes, a moral crusader always, but he also can be a pain in the ass to a number of people.

Take Nazril Irham, also known as Ariel. Kind of colleague of the Rolling Stones’ front-men Jagger and Richards. This week the lead singer of the band called Peterpan was released from prison after doing two thirds of his time.

What was the matter with him?

Artists use to aspire to eternity. The genuine ones. The geniuses. Some almost made it. Shakespeare, Michelangelo. But what to do if you have the right ambition but not enough talent and genius?

Ariel, who obviously is not an extremely bright boy, found an answer: record yourself making love to your partner. And put the video on internet. Perhaps he didn’t do that himself. That part may have been someone else’s idea. Anyhow: brilliant idea, just brilliant. The  world wide web is eternal, so get your steamy video on that internet and next you and your passionate ‘pas de deux’ will be eternally attracting audiences.

If he takes stock now, he can be satisfied. He’s on the right track to eternal fame. The video can still be watched. And I bet it will be for the foreseeable future.

His claim for eternity had it’s price though.The Cerberus barked and there it was: three and a half years in prison and an almost  $ 30000 fine for the rock star. Despite the fact police and prosecutor hardly had a decent legal case. But, well, public sexual intercourse on internet is off limits. That’s what you get if the state of law is weak and  a few moral crusaders in government are the mighty guardians of common decency. If necessary they will bend the rules to get a satisfactory conviction.

He is free now. On probation. With regular counselling as one of the conditions. Can’t leave Bandung without permission. Pretty awkward, inconvenient and humiliating for a rock star. To top it off his alleged sex partner Luna now says there’s no rush to meet him.

Mick Jagger – who in the feature  film “Performance” graphically made love to Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards’ girlfriend at the time-  had 4000 bed partners. He may have heard Ariel’s story in bewilderment. I almost can hear him whisper: “F.ck, it’s tough to be a Rock Star with a lot of those f.cking Titafuls around”.

No, Indonesia is no country for rock & roll lifestyle.