Julia Perez Drops Out -- Drop Out?

I am disappointed to read that Julia Perez's candidacy was nothing more than a well-orchestrated scam to get publicity for her personally and the shows and films that she is involved with. I still think she would have been a breath of fresh air with respect to shaking up the establishment.

She might have been a good politician or she might have been a complete non-event, but that was not really the point, was it? The point was clearly to show that government really is of the people, by the people, and for the people.

If more professional politicians realised this then the places they govern would be much better places in which to live. The Labor Party of Australia found that out in a most devastating fashion yesterday. Even more devastating for them considering they were a very popular government when elected and in their first term. The moral of the story is if you play with fire then, sooner or later, you will get burned. The public can only tolerate so much and then they will lash out at the ballot box (if they live in a country where they can do so).

Then again, the Jupe dropping out story might have more to do with a disputed high school certificate than it does with a cynical and risky public relations stunt. If I was a Jupe fan, I would be a little upset that the support that I though I was giving her for a run at higher office was a charade. By all accounts, the Perez candidacy was never likely to happen despite being constantly talked up by the prospective candidate as she never got around to submitting the necessary paperwork to the authorities as part of the standard vetting procedures for candidates and prospective heads of regions.

Nevertheless, the plan is to replace Jupe with another celebrity candidate. The names of Desy Ratnasari, Krisdayanti, and Denada among a few others have been touted as possible alternates. This says that it is an election destined to be based on celebrity rather than substance.

If nothing else, the candidacy has been good for the odd Jupe post and the obligatory images of her in various states of sexiness.

Ho hum...

More Jupe...

If you knew nothing else about Julia Perez as a candidate for District Head of your local government aside from the photos posted here, would you vote for her?

Jupe for Pacitan!

Jupe -- Sexpot Politics...

Julia Perez, or Jupe as she is known to her loyal and devoted fans, is capitalising on her fame to make a run for public office. The jury is out on whether she would cut the mustard as a politician, but all sides seem to think that she has a shot of getting elected. I hope she does!

Having been on CNN recently and the focus of a story in the New York Times, Jupe now finds herself gracing the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle. The article is the same one that was in the NYT by the looks of it. But, when it is all said and done, it is still more than enough to open the door for some posting of some sexy Jupe pictures.

It might just be the breath of fresh air that Indonesian politics needs. It might also be a disaster! But, being the eternal optimist I am going to lean towards election and a more successful term than disastrous one. The down side is that she really does not have a broad enough knowledge of politics and public policy to be anything other than ineffective. However, I would argue, in her defense, that she has already exhibited some real knowledge of social issues that she has been more intimately involved with as part of her fame, or infamy, like HIV / AIDS and sex education of Indonesia's youth.

Most recently, Ms. Perez has been in the news giving the current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a serve about the consistent failures of the government with the gas conversion program. Of particular note, Ms. Perez took an opportunistic shot at SBY when a gas cylinder exploded in her home in Cibubur and injured her maid.

The criticisms as highlighted in The Jakarta Globe article show what many consider to be her weakness; no policy knowledge. It is easy to criticise and offer up no policy or legislative alternatives. Megawati, a former President, regular salon dweller, and largely irrelevant leader of the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle), is renowned for this campaign methodology of criticising without offering alternatives. It has not served her well as she has not reclaimed the presidency. As a long-term campaign strategy this will not serve Jupe well either.

The reality is that the prospect of Ms. Perez being elected to the local government of Pacitan is somewhat titillating, the Indonesian voting populace is far more knowledgeable on the issues that effect, and affect, them. Simply, Jupe needs to come up with some policies that show she has the political smarts to go with her sexpot image.

Viva Jupe!

Julia Perez and the New York Times...

For a political candidate with no political experience and a reputation for controversy Julia Perez has certainly quickly mastered the art of using the media. Here is a young woman who's primary claim to fame involves being in touch with her femininity, sexuality, and sexiness who has managed to captivate a nation and seemingly the world into a race in a small town in rural Java.

It is an interesting aside that she is running for elected office in the town that the current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, hails from, but that's all it is, an aside.

The more intriguing issues were an attempt to introduce "moral" standards that candidates would have to meet in order to be able to nominate and stand for public office. This was designed with Julia Perez (or Jupe) in mind. It has come and gone, and is now well and truly off the radar for the present time. It is probably a good thing for many others other than Julia Perez because there are quite a few politicians that would conceivably have moral issues that would otherwise exclude them from public office (no need to name names, is there?).

There are those that doubt the legitimacy of Perez's candidacy and her ability to do the job as they would rather focus on the presumption that Ms. Perez is being exploited by shrewd political operators in an effort to embarrass the president and to exacerbate the divide between Indonesians of a more moderate and pluralistic view and those who adopt more fundamental and hardline approaches.

However, no one seems to be canvassing the idea that the person doing the exploiting is Ms. Perez herself. Maybe it is Perez that is exploiting the opportunity and the offers to run for office are just the opportunity she has been looking for.

Let's face it; win, lose, or draw in the election, she has won on a bigger scale in that she will now have expanded her base into places she might otherwise never have been able to. How many seriously experienced Indonesian politicians can claim recent stories on CNN and now in the New York Times.

It should be remembered that even though she has little or no political experience of consequence, she does have plenty of social activism related experience as a spokesperson on a number of issues relating to sexual health, among others. This might in fact be more "experience" than some current politicians had when they were elected to office in the present term.

Democracy is a beautiful thing. This time it seems that democracy Jupe style is a lot better looking than what the opposition has to offer.

One final note (and an admission), I am glad that she is running because it is a good excuse to go through my collection of Jupe photos and post them in the relevant blog posts. Enjoy (all these photos are freely available on the Internet, you can search for them and more if you need to).

Ho hum...

Julia Perez on CNN...

Julia Perez and CNN in the same sentence conjures up the images of another celebrity sex scandal. However, in this instance CNN Go have interviewed Julia Perez not about her reputation as a sex siren, but rather her politics and her work on issues such as sex education and safe sex.

Yet, it was the lead in that piques the interest in reading all the way through; she wants to be "just like Obama". The interview in and of itself does not tell me much about her that I did not already know. Nevertheless, it might be surprising to some as she comes across as reasonably articulate and knowledgeable on the issues that she seemingly cares about. I am yet to be convinced that she has what it takes to be just like Obama or even Evita Peron, but perhaps time will tell.

Perez is currently running for the Deputy District Chief position in Pacitan. Sometimes elections in Indonesia are run more like popularity contests rather than choices between differing political philosophies. So, it will be interesting to see how Perez goes. To this end, it would seem that much of her political platform is going to be based on fighting corruption which she sees as a much more important issue than the 'porn' stuff that currently occupies much of the government's time.

If nothing else, a post on Julia Perez or Jupe lets me post a picture of her to accompany the text that perhaps no one will read as they probably have not gone beyond the picture.

Ho hum...

Julia Perez Blacklisted by the MUI

The Head of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) in Pekanbaru, Ilyas Husti, has decided that the MUI needed to issue a letter rejecting the visit of Julia Perez (aka Jupe) from visiting the city, and he has done just that.

Since when has the MUI been the arbiter of travel in Indonesia and since when have they had the power to ban the travel of private citizens? Furthermore, since when has the MUI had the power to regulate who political parties or any other organization invite to perform at the functions of these organizations?

The MUI really needs to pull its head out of the sand before it gets the communal backlash boot in the arse. This is the same sort of thing you would expect to see from fundamental Muslim elements who deem themselves as arbiters of what is entertainment. I always thought that the MUI liked to consider itself a moderate organization.

A recent example from Indonesia's near neighbours in Malaysia saw an Islamic student organization seeking a ban on Indonesia's "queen of the drill", Inul. Let's face it, both Indonesia and Malaysia have much bigger problems than a little hip wiggling at a political rally or a concert.

The overall expectation was that Jupe would participate in the celebrations that have been planned for Independence Day on 17 August. Independence Day in any country is an important day, one where the freedoms that independence have brought are celebrated by the masses. It is a time to let down the collective hair and enjoy being free. Unfortunately, for the citizens of Pekanbaru, the MUI seems determined to rain on this parade.

The problem seems to be that Jupe's reputation as a bit of a sex symbol proceeds her and the MUI is concerned that this image will get all the local lad's hormones raging and perhaps a bunch of testosterone engorged teenagers will lose the plot. Jupe is a bit of a sensationalist and panders to that image. Her most recent claim to fame involved the packaging of condoms with her latest album release. Considering, the heightened risk of HIV / AIDS in Indonesia, perhaps Jupe should be praised for her convictions rather than blacklisted for them.

Now is a time to celebrate Indonesia's rich cultural and ethnic diversity and not to curtail it. It is sad that the MUI cannot see this simple truth, that sometimes people just need to have fun!