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A moral hazard: Indonesia at flashpoint over gay rights
Sydney Morning Herald - February 19, 2016
But now it seems Dorce, who was born a man, is a moral hazard. Last week the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission banned radio and television stations from airing any program that portrayed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender behaviour as normal.
The ban reportedly followed a meeting with the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, which was concerned about the increasing number of television programs starring members of the LGBT community, such as Dorce, who had a sex change operation decades ago.
Indonesian Child Protection Commission spokeswoman Erlinda told the Jakarta Post many young boys were starting to cross dress or adopt feminine characteristics because they had been "brainwashed" by these television programs.
It's difficult to pick the most bizarre anti-gay statement coming out of the moral panic now engulfing Indonesia. Was it the Communications and Information Ministry asking messaging apps to censor same-sex emojis – colourful icons featuring rainbow flags and men skipping in fields of flowers – because they could lead to public unrest?
Or parliamentarian Effendi Simbolon opposing a plan to waive tourist visa fees for 76 countries, in part, because it could facilitate the spread of LGBT culture in Indonesia. "Including LGBT, all that is considered a threat is no longer outside the fence but already inside our house. Why wasn't this considered when waiving free visas?" Effendi lamented in Parliament.
This outburst followed days of inflammatory anti-gay statements from public officials, triggered by outrage over a brochure on counselling distributed by a gay support group at the University of Indonesia.
First Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir said publicly affectionate gay students should be banned from university campuses. Then Vice-President Jusuf Kalla asked the United Nations Development Program not to finance LGBT programs in Indonesia.
And then on Wednesday, the country's top body of Islamic scholars, the Indonesian Ulema Council, called for "LGBT activity and other forms of sexual deviance" to be considered a crime.
The hashtag #DaruratLGBT (LGBT emergency) began circulating on Twitter. "you must realize that you were born because normal relationship (between man and woman), not with the same gender #DaruratLGBT" – Sicco Satria Negara (@siccosatria) February 12, 2016
For the first time ever, national debate around LGBT rights has reached a flashpoint in Indonesia. The wave of homophobia has caught many off guard. Homosexuality has never been outlawed here, other than in the northern province of Aceh, which implements Islamic law. The Bugis, an ethnic group in South Sulawesi, recognise five genders and transvestites, known as waria, have been a feature of public life in Indonesia for hundreds of years.
"In 1997 there was a crackdown on transvestites in Yogyakarta by Kaba Youth Movement but only for a few days," says gay activist Dede Oetomo. "This time it's a bit strange because it is entering the fourth week with more and more people talking about it. Maybe it's to shift public attention away from God only knows what. LGBT is an easy target."
Wider prejudice
The queer community is not the only minority group facing persecution in Indonesia. Last month an angry mob besieged a remote Gafatar farming community in West Kalimantan. More than 1000 former members of Gafatar, also known as the Fajar Nusantara Movement, were evacuated after their settlement was torched.
Gafatar follow the teachings of a variety of scriptures, including but not limited to those of Islam. Within weeks the Indonesian Ulema Council had issued a ruling declaring them a deviant sect. Police are investigating whether the leaders committed blasphemy and religious defamation.
Meanwhile the Ahmadiyah, who are considered heretical by mainstream Muslims because they do not believe Muhammad was the final prophet, have faced expulsion from an island off Sumatra and harassment in Subang in West Java.
Jokowi, as he is popularly known, included human rights in his 2014 presidential election campaign. But he has not delivered on his promise to protect religious freedom, according to the Setara Institute.
The human rights advocacy group recorded 236 instances of violence against religious minorities in 2015, the first year of the Jokowi administration. This was a significant increase on the previous year. Most alarmingly, the institute says, government bodies (including police and local authorities) were the most responsible for perpetuating religious intolerance.
Researcher Halili Hasan pointed to 15 restrictive policies in 2015, including a ban on Shiite Muslims celebrating their religious feast day, Ashura, in Bogor in West Java. "One of the weak points in religious freedom protections is the state apparatus itself, especially at the local levels," Halili says. "This has to be taken seriously by the Jokowi administration."
Last Wednesday – a week after Indonesian authorities asked Facebook to remove its gay friendly emojis on messaging app Whatsapp – Jokowi played gravity-free ping pong in virtual reality with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The irony of the timing of Jokowi's visit to Silicon Valley was not lost on a small group of protesters in the United States. Zuckerberg is a known ally of the LGBT community – Facebook's rainbow filter was credited by gay groups as spreading a message of inclusivity across the world.
"It's unbelievable... it's very hard to explain to our friends in the US," Peter Phwan, from Indonesian-American group ICANet, says of the recent LGBT crackdown in Indonesia.
Phwan was one of a small number of demonstrators who called on the president to defend human rights outside a theatre in San Francisco where Jokowi addressed the Indonesian diaspora. "Jokowi is considered as a positive change, but we need to be critical," Phwan says.
The demonstrators called on Jokowi's government to end the persecution of religious minorities and gay people, stop human rights violations in Papua and provide justice for the victims of the 1965 anti-communist massacres. "We really hope to tell the world: 'Jokowi please pay attention to this'," Phwan says.
Cases of persecution of so-called deviant sects and minority groups in Indonesia have increased markedly following the fall of the authoritarian president Suharto in 1998. "An ironic paradox of democracy is it opens up greater freedom of expression," says Melissa Crouch from the University of New South Wales.
This means that radical groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), infamous for committing violence in the name of Islam, also have greater sway over society. "Unfortunately the national government has struggled with how to respond to these groups, especially those that conduct campaigns of intimidation against religious minorities," Crouch says.
Jakarta Post columnist Ary Hermawan says Indonesia has never had a liberal politician fighting for a liberal agenda. "Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo was backed by the liberals in the 2014 election, but the president is far from being a liberal," he writes.
"In the first few months of his presidency he executed a number of drug convicts to keep his popularity intact. We should not be surprised that his ministers are more conservative than he is and that all these anti-gay policies are being made under his watch."
However some recent signs have been promising. Chief security minister Luhut Panjaitan, one of Jokowi's most trusted and senior ministers, caused a sensation on social media when he mounted a spirited defence of both gay people and the Ahmadiyah.
"Whatever it is, whatever they are doing, they are Indonesian citizens so they are entitled to be protected," Mr Panjaitan told reporters. "I disagree with killing or expelling people whenever there are differences in opinions. I want to respect our dignity as a nation."
Eleventh-hour reprieve
Meanwhile, the Ahmadis, who were facing expulsion from Bangka Island, off the coast of Sumatra, won an eleventh-hour reprieve. "Alhamdulillah [praise be to God], it did not happen. We are still here," says Ibnu Farid, one of 22 Ahmadis living in the village of Srimenanti.
The seven Ahmadi families were due to be evicted on February 5, after hundreds of villagers demanded they leave because they deviated from Islamic teachings.
"When our mosque was closed down in 2010 I didn't care," says Ibnu, who sells gas canisters "and other stuff" to make a living. "What matters to me is that they wanted to expel us from our own house. That is something I cannot accept."
But cooler heads prevailed. On February 3, Bangka police handed out pamphlets warning that anyone who carried out "anarchic action" against the Ahmadis faced up to six years' jail and a fine of one billion Rupiah ($103,000). "I think people got scared by it," Ibnu says. "We were very happy indeed and we helped distribute the pamphlets."
The same day a mediation team met with the Ahmadiyah. It was eventually agreed they would stay in Srimenanti, on the condition they not promote their faith, in line with a 2008 government decree.
Some of the Ahmadis were temporarily moved to a safe house in Pangkalpinang until tensions calmed. "My children returned home just today," Ibnu says. "I think [the future] looks relatively good."
Besides being an entertainer and releasing a string of successful records, Dorce Gamalama established an Islamic orphanage. She asked the teachers there to explain to the 300 children that she was transgender.
"And thank God, the children never complain about me," she says. "They know I am a woman and I do a decent job. "So they respect me. I think it is better for people to stop thinking about gays, lesbians, transvestites, bisexuals and start helping people. If you want to help someone, you would not ask 'What is your sexual orientation', would you?"
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