The Buddha Bar -- Jakarta

The Buddha Bar is one that I have heard of and have never had the cause or the inclination to go there. I have friends and colleagues who have trundled by and have given it mixed reviews. By consensus it seems that it caters to the upper end of the market and I am a strictly down town kind of fella. So, the Buddha Bar and me are not a match made in heaven.

However, this is not a post about my watering hole preferences,but rather a musing about what Buddha might think about a group of Buddhists students closing the place down because it allegedly insults their religious sensitivities.

The Jakarta Post is reporting that the Indonesian Buddhists Student Association (Aliansi Mahasiswa Buddhis / AMB) has closed down the Buddha Bar and management has seemingly agreed to this. This does not seem to be a particularly enlightened move on the part of the AMB.

The Buddha Bar is part of a chain of bars owned and operated by George V Hotels and Resorts which is based in France. The groups has Buddha Bars in a number of other locations including London, New York, Cairo, and Beirut, to name but a few.

According to Kompas, the group has recommended that the Tourist Agency of the Government and the Governor become pro-active in the stripping of the groups business license to operate in Jakarta. Presumably, this request should be directed further up the chain so as to ensure that any requisite business licenses are stripped for the whole of Indonesia and not just Jakarta.

It seems that the primary concern of the AMB is that the association of Buddha to a bar is inappropriate, particularly as the Buddha Bar is a place that serves alcohol and allows people to get drunk. I am guessing that the point is that Buddha neither drank alcohol nor got drunk.

The secondary concern relates to the fact that the Buddha Bar is populated with Buddhist symbols and artifacts (I would be guessing that most are cheap imitations as opposed to the real thing - but as I said I have not been to the place and I am not sure that I would know the difference anyway).

It also appears, according to a spokesperson for the AMB, that before the word Buddha can be used in any context there must be written approval from the Directorate General of Buddhist Affairs at the Department of Religion.

The last time I was in a music store checking out a couple of the latest CDs, I noticed that there are a series of music CDs related to the Bar and simply called Buddha Bar I, Buddha Bar II, Buddha Bar III, and I think I saw a Buddha Bar IV as well. I guess once the students successfully close down the Buddha Bar proper then they can turn their collective attention to blockading music stores and demand that the CDs be withdrawn from sale.

Interestingly, the Jakarta Post is reporting that the management of the Buddha Bar has also filed a request for a name change. It is not often that you see Indonesians demand changes that are likely to see them out of a job.

The simple reality here is that the Buddha Bar is part of a chain, a franchise if you will, that will lose its appeal should it be renamed George V Bar (although you might get a bit more patronage from some English folks looking to down a warm pint or two). More to the point the staff that work there had no qualms about joining the establishment in the first place. Because if they did then they should have stuck to their principles at that point in time and refused to take up employment until such time as the owners caved into the yet to be employed employees demands for a name change.

This is at best a case of opportunism by the staff and at worst a misrepresentation in the media of the employee's actual position.

This is clearly a case of students having too much time on their hands and nothing better to do. Let's face it there is a world of poverty and illness out there that needs the idealism of youth much more than the shutting down of a poorly named bar that is providing an income to Indonesians and allowing them to feed themselves and their families.

My understanding of Buddha and Buddhist teachings is that they teach tolerance and understanding. I am guessing Buddha is probably sitting under a tree somewhere taking a break from his enlightened meditations and thinking to himself, chill out, it's just a bar.

My thanks to Lawblogger (one of my readers - I cannot link to a blog because I do not know who he is and whether he even has a blog) for pointing me in this direction.

Anonymous Blogging, Wordpress, and the Prophet

This story is a couple of days old and I have been too lazy to write about it before. However, I figured I should as I have recently made a presentation relating to the recently enacted Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE Law).

The story is that there is an anonymous blogger in town and they are posting a comic strip of the Prophet Muhammad which has riled the sensibilities of many Muslims. What caught my attention was the headline in the Jakarta Post which reads "Govt to pressurize Wordpress into disclosing blogger's ID". I am not sure that pressurize is the right word for this sentence. I am guessing that it is like terrorizing using pressure to get a pressurize situation.

The language choices aside, there are just a couple of points that are worth making here.

If you think that you are anonymous then make sure that you are smart enough to know how to use the technology to make it so. The government is demanding that Wordpress reveal the identity of the blogger because the content of the offending blog is deemed to be a cyber crime. The threat is that if Wordpress does not disclose the blogger's identity then the National Police Force's Digital Forensic Lab is going to get involved and uncover the blogger's identity themselves.

It seems that there is still a fair amount of road to be travelled in terms of what constitutes free speech and freedom of expression, particularly in light of Article 27 of the new ITE Law.

The Pornography Law -- A Dead Document?

The Jakarta Post recently reported that Constitutional Law Expert, Irman Putra Sidin, saying, "How can we expect the law to be implemented when people and officials oppose it? Who's going to enforce it? It will end up as merely a dead document," based on the fact that at least four provinces were going to actively oppose the law and refuse to enforce it. Those provinces are Bali, North Sulawesi, Yogyakarta, and West Papua.

The rationale for this position is that if the law is not implemented nationwide then can it be valid anywhere. I would have thought that once the law was passed by parliament and enacted as law then it was the law of the land. Therefore, in a republic like the Republic of Indonesia, the law would apply everywhere.

A more interesting argument would be does the refusal to implement the law amount to the beginning of an act of secession? How far do the provinces want to push this? What sanctions could the State impose on rogue provinces that refuse to enforce state laws and regulations.

In fact this should be read as a preliminary movement towards seeking independence from the Republic of Indonesia. Quite clearly the intent of West Papua is to secede from the Republic if they are required to enforce the law. Andrikus Mofu, spokesperson for the West Papuan delegation said the following, "We will inform the international community of our aspiration and our intention to separate from Indonesia." This seems to leave little doubt where the West Papuan intentions lay.

The most likely course of action will be a Constitutional Court challenge to test the binding nature and legality of the provisions. The definitions of pornography and the manner that pornography is to be determined is arguably loose. Nevertheless, this is an issue that the Court will be asked to determine.

The reality is the laws of the land are to be applied and all are to be equal before the law. Special dispensation in one province compared to another means that there is no equality before the law and this is more likely to lead to problems than the enforcement of the law.

Of all the things that could trigger the disintegration of the Republic it is interesting that it is the Pornography Law that is being talked about as being this trigger.

Driving in Indonesia

Keeping to the theme of driving in Indonesia.

The Jakarta Post reported last Saturday that a Brazilian fella has found himself in jail for killing a person in Legian, Bali, in a hit and run. In truth, the JP actually headlined with "... Brazilian driver kills motorists" then went on to say that he killed one person and put another 4 people in hospital.

Guilherme Guedo was apparently in Bali on business and after a night out on the turps decided that he needed to have some fun. Some reports suggest he tried to jack a motorbike from some unsuspecting Balinese and then in the end managed to steal a laundry van. I am wondering what kind of business this fella is in, just as a matter of interest, and how drunk do you have to be to want to steal a laundry van and then decide to drive against the flow of the traffic?

Interestingly, the news does not seem to mention the business or the age of Guedo but the Police Chief of Denpasar is intent that Guedo's family must pay for the medical expenses of the victims. On this front I am not sure how this would work. I also wonder why the family should pay for the crimes of adult siblings. Why should Guedo not be personally responsible for his actions?

Guedo has been charged with stealing the van and dangerous driving resulting in death. He is liable for a stint in an Indonesian jail of up to 10 years. It seems that 4.1kg of weed is a far more serious offense than drinking and driving and then killing someone. I wonder whether the rationale is that the weed could potentially kill more people and therefore is a more serious crime?

Drink and drive, idiot!

Franz Magnis-Suseno and Tolerance

Franz Magnis-Suseno is a Catholic Priest and a very long-term resident of Indonesia and although hailing from another part of the world, Germany, he has taken out Indonesian citizenship. The man is a bit of a legend and his commitment to Indonesia and its development is as unwavering as it is unquestionable. He is currently the Rector of the Driyarkara School of Philosophy.

He has recently gone on the record in the Jakarta Post as saying that the attacks by the FPI on 1 June 2008 were sure to be a challenge for the government in ensuring that people from other countries did not develop the wrong perception of Indonesia as an intolerant country.

According to Magnis-Suseno the idea that the FPI represents mainstream Indonesian Islam is nonsense and something that must be addressed sooner rather than late if the Indonesian government is serious about averting the spread of this misconception.

Nevertheless, he did acknowledge that the attack of 1 June is an indication that there is violence lurking just under the surface and that it can explode into open violence at any moment. There was also an acknowledgement that the government is often paralyzed by the fear of being seen as anti-Islam or pro-Islam (I would suggest the pro-Islam issue is one of being seen to be pro-radical or fundamental Islam) that it tends to act slowly or do nothing.

The reality is that people identify as Muslim first and Indonesian second and this simply means they put the interests of their religion ahead of the interests of their country. This is in part why Islam has been so successful in spreading and thriving throughout the world as all interests are secondary to the practice of the religion.

It is interesting to read the words of Nadya Madjid, the daughter of one of Indonesia's foremost Islamic scholars, Nurcholish Madjid or Cak Nur, who makes the analogy that Indonesian Islam is in the puberty stage. This is to mean that it is still trying to find its identity as it moves into adulthood. This is both hopeful and scary as the potential remains that Indonesian Islam may still take a sharp turn to more fundamental interpretations of the Qur'an.

Such is Life!

Protesting in Jakarta

I read with interest that the "opinion" piece in the Jakarta Post today was about responsible protesting and the fact that protesters no longer seemed to care about the people that their protesting would affect. This now seems to be standard fodder for many editorialists and opinion writers. It is a line that has been trotted out before and one I have commented on elsewhere in my blog. It is also something that has been trotted out by Globe Media in their flag bearing publication "Globe Asia".

The gist of the argument is that street demonstrations and protests cause traffic jams, traffic jams make people late for work and negatively impacts on business, these negative impacts cost money, and money lost means investors are likely to rethink whether or not to invest in Indonesia. Yeah, right! Pull the other chain in plays Dixie!

The whole point of protesting is to exercise a democratic right to do so and to hold your government accountable. Can it be inconvenient, yes. Should it be inconvenient, yes! The reality is that the only time some of us might ever think about an issue is if it directly impacts upon us. Being caught in a traffic jam and being late impacts upon us. But instead of being angry at the protesters, perhaps this anger should be directed towards the government that allowed conditions to get to a point where people felt that their only recourse was to demonstrate and protest.

So, the protesters threw some Molotov cocktails. This is hardly a reason to ban protests altogether! It is an excuse though to stifle the democratic rights of the masses. Those that break the law by perpetrating violence threw such methods as the destruction of property must be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent permissible under the law. Peaceful demonstrations no matter how inconvenient must be permitted. These demonstrations and protests are legitimate means of expression and calling the government to account.

The Jakarta Post singles out the recent actions relating to the proposed and now happened fuel price hike. The protesters have legitimate concerns here as to their ability to live without additional government assistance and the proportional impact of the price rise on the poor compared to the more affluent.

I have not seen the Jakarta Post jumping up and down about the inconvenience caused by protests staged by the PKS in support of Palestine! This is also a worthy cause, but if we are going to characterize the argument into one of convenience, then any protest in support of any aim that results in a traffic jam should be frowned upon. Once again this clearly misses the point of protesting and taking your demands to the street.

The Jakarta Post's solution to this problem is to restrict protests and demonstrations to public parks such as in and around Monas. Why not go the whole nine yards and allocated special days for protests to be held in the out-of-the-way surrounds of the Ragunan Zoo. The Jakarta Post then goes even further with this gem:

"It is high time for Indonesians to avoid such past practices for changing the state leadership to the more modern, constitutional means: the five-yearly democratic election."

This I am guessing is a suggestion that protests and demonstrations should be banned altogether and the only permissible protest by the community must come at the ballot box and only every five years. Maybe the Jakarta Post should be telling Zimbabweans that the best way forward is not street protests but accepting your fate and then voting the office holders out at the next election.

If the Jakarta Post is not in the mood to go that far, why not editorialize something much closer to home such as the inept generals of the Burmese regime, who in their citizens' moment of most critical need they are ummmming and ahhhing about whether or not to let foreign aid workers in. Maybe street protests, although sometimes violent and violently suppressed by authorities are the best way to bring attention to one's plight.

The right to protest is a democratic right and this must not be curtailed for reasons of convenience. Maybe if we all paid a little more attention and demanded a lot more of our elected governments then protests would occur a whole lot less frequently! The photograph is courtesy of the Jakarta Post and photographer Ricky Yudhistira.