RIM Blocks Porn on BlackBerry Smartphones in Indonesia...

All hail to the Anti-Pornography King, TitS!

TitS (aka Tifatul Sembiring) has seemingly won the battle with RIM. RIM have not only agreed to block pornography from their BlackBerry Smartphones, but they have gone even further by simply adopting the filtering system developed by the Nawala Project.

This filtering system blocks out all content that is considered to be not only pornographic, but that content that is considered to be related to gambling, phishing / malware, and SARA (this is a term that relates to anything involving religion, ethnicity, race, or inter-group relations). The filter is very broad, which means that many Indonesians will not be able to access sites through their BlackBerry devices that are harmless.

It must be pointed out that the Nawala project is an Indonesia created open-source filtering service that has been in operation since 2009. It is the filtering service of choice for all of Indonesia's telecommunications providers, and it is the one that is being touted by the Ministry of Communication and Information.

The use of the Nawala Project filtering system by RIM is a cost-effective way of meeting the demands for a porn filter from the Minister for [Mis]Communication and [Mis]Information. It is cost effective because it is open-source and it is free. Although, it would seem that Irwin Day, Deputy Head of Public Relations at the Nawala Project, is contemplating that RIM might make some financial contribution to the ongoing development of the technology.

What's next? Well, the porn filter issue was really only a pre-cursor to a much larger battle in TitS' war against RIM. The Minister wants a server, or at least an aggregator, to be built in Indonesia. The rationale is a simple one; Indonesia is the biggest user of RIM BlackBerry devices in Southeast Asia and has earned the right to have the server / aggregator built in Indonesia. For Indonesian subscribers, the belief is that a server here will reduce BlackBerry tariffs. In contrast, the Minister wants the RIM server here because he believes that it will make it easier for his Ministry to track corruption and terrorism suspects and their communications.

If RIM stands true to form then it would be reasonable to expect them to fold on that demand as well. I wonder how long it will be before RIM and its Managing Director for this part of the world, Gregory Wade, are announcing their plans to build a server in Jakarta?

If TitS is giving all his praise to Allah for allowing him a victory in the filter battles, then one can only imagine how much beside himself he will be when RIM announces that it is building a server in Indonesia. It might just be enough to send him into the arms of Vicky Vette and another happy ending!

Then again, one day, and perhaps one day soon, TitS will realise that for all his small victories in battles on the war on porn that he is fighting a losing fight. Internet pornography will always be there as will those with an appetite for it and the desire to develop mechanisms to access it. The porn industry is very much like Medusa's head in that for every snake you cut off, another one grows back in its place (I am sure someone is going to want to argue the point about severing Medusa's head altogether, right?).

"Negro", "Black", or "African-American"?

This blog of mine generally focuses on issues relating to Australia and Indonesia. However, the whole point was that the blog was to be a place that I could write about anything that piqued my interest or that I wanted, or felt the need, to pass comment on.

Politically correctness and racism are issues that pique my interest. They do so because I sometimes feel that the drive towards politically correctness is a hindrance to full, frank, and open debate about issues. In this case, the issue is race. Race is an issue that is highly emotionally charged, and is one where there are quite divergent opinions amongst those who are subject to the terms that politically correctness generates for us.

This brings me to the substance of this post. I read an interesting article today over at Slate today. The article was discussing when the word "Negro" became taboo. The taboo came soon after the book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation was published in 1968 (cover of the 1992 version is above).

The purpose of the Slate article seemed to be exploring the drive to political correctness in making the term "Black" taboo in preference to the use of the term African-American. I would encourage those with an interest in this sort of subject matter to read the article.

The parts of the story that I found most interesting related to how organizations deal with the changing dynamics, and the drive, to replace certain words with new words while simultaneously stigmatizing the previous term. Also interesting to me was that the move towards the term "African-American" does not have universal support as a majority of people are seemingly non-plused one way or the other with respect to African-American or Black.

With regards to organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has not changed its name but uses the word 'colored' in very limited contexts. The United Negro College Fund tends to go by the initials, UNCF, rather than the full name. Seemingly, this is an exercise in re-branding a familiar and ongoing concern that helps a lot of young people achieve their goals. Indeed, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Bringing this back home for me got me to thinking about how we refer to Aboriginal Australians. There was a time where the were referred to as Blacks. There was also a time where the preferred term was Aboriginal, and seemingly of late there has been a move towards the term "Indigenous Australians". I am sure organizations in the Australian context would encounter similar considerations in relation to names. For example, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) before it was dissolved.

I do not know about anyone else, but I find this sort of 'stuff' interesting.

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination -- Reviewed and Updated

Overview

The House of Representatives (DPR) passed the Bill on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination on 28 October 2008. The law has been in the process of being passed since 2005 when it first arose as a DPR Initiative. Indonesia already has a racial discrimination law, Law No. 29 of 1999, which is the enactment of Indonesia’s responsibilities and obligations as a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The premise of the law is that everyone is born the same in the eyes of God and that everyone is equal before the law irrespective of their ethnicity or race. Nevertheless, these aspirations now have a little more gravitas as they have been codified into law. The need for the codification is that all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination are contrary to the principles contained in Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, it is the Government’s view that this provides a mandate that demands that Indonesia take all steps necessary to remove racial and ethnic discrimination from the Republic of Indonesia.

Challenges of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination
Indonesia as an archipelagic nation faces many challenges on the race and ethnicity front. These challenges stem from the bringing together of many racial and ethnic minorities under the flag of a unitary republic. Nevertheless, the differences between the multi-racial and multi-ethnic constituent parts of the Republic are often the trigger for violence.

The law simplifies this to one of differences or imbalance in social, economic, and power opportunities which ultimately lead to substantial losses to the communities where they occur. The violence that accompanies these conflicts is usually extreme and involves not only rioting and looting and destruction but rape and murder as well.

Basic Impacts
Aside from the suffering of the local communities, it is also clear that the suffering extends way beyond the local communities and negatively impacts on the short, medium, and long term development of the nation as a whole. These impacts arise because of many factors, for example, a reluctance of investors to invest in areas that are prone to racial and ethnic conflicts.

What’s Covered
The law stipulates that it regulates issues such as the following:
· The basis for the elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination;
· Actions that satisfy the elements of discrimination;
· Provide protections for those citizens that have suffered racial and ethnic discrimination;
· Protect citizens from racial and ethnic discrimination that arises from central and regional government actions and actions of the broader community;
· Supervision to ensure the elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination by the National Commission of Human Rights;
· The rights of citizens to receive equal treatment with respect to their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights;
· Obligations and the role of the community in ensuring the elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination;
· Claims for compensation for losses sustained as a result of racial and ethnic discrimination; and
· Criminalizing discriminative behaviour.

Definitions
The definition of what constitutes discrimination is broad and can be civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. Race and ethnicity are also defined. Race is defined simply as physical characteristics that distinguish one group of people from another and lines of ancestry. Ethnicity is defined as a group that can be distinguished based on beliefs, values, norms, cultural traditions, language, history, geography, and kinship.

The point of eliminating discrimination is to promote and ensure harmony, peace, and security, among others. Therefore, discrimination is defined as any action that seeks to distinguish or differentiate individuals or makes exceptions for individuals thereby holding the potential to upset the harmony, peace, and security apple cart.

The law and the Elucidations are either silent or less than clear on what impact this might have on any affirmative action programs that may arise in the future.

Objectives
The objectives of the law are to ensure the elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination. However, simultaneously the law is also seeking to establish equality, freedom, justice, and universal human norms.

The idea of establishing universal human norms is an interesting objective for many reasons. Most notably among these is that many have tried to distinguish between Asian and Western values and that some norms are not universal, particularly in the context that “Asian cultures” favour the group over the individual right. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, for example, was a staunch advocate of the Asian values systems. One could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the law is Indonesia’s attempt to repudiate this point of view by codifying that there are universal human values with respect to race and ethnicity that must be protected irrespective of where one resides in the world, as this does not seem to be the case.

The reality is that the above claims to universal values worthy of protection are moderated in Article 2(2) with the requirement that the values of equality, freedom, justice and universal human norms be determined within the contextual frame of prevailing religious, social, cultural, and legal norms of the Republic of Indonesia.

Discriminative Actions
The law broadly lists what a discriminative action entails as anything that:
· Differentiates;
· Provides exceptions;
· Restricts; or
· Chooses

The above would require that each of these actions was undertaken within the parameters of race or ethnicity. Furthermore, this would also require that the consequences of these actions include the revocation, or reduction in acknowledgment, or the inability to obtain, or implement a human right in any civil, political, economic, cultural, or social sense.

Racial and Ethnic Vilification
The law also regulates hate speech and vilification in Article 4(b). The provision states that the promotion of hate or feelings of hatred through the use of the following, among others, is strictly prohibited:
· Writings or graphic depictions (pictures), and
· Speeches.

Supervision
The supervision of the provisions of the law is to be done by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM). Supervision will be undertaken through means such as monitoring and evaluation of government policy, investigation and examination of available facts of alleged discrimination, provision of recommendations to government, monitoring and evaluation of programs designed to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination, and the provision of recommendations to the House of Representatives (DPR).

The Role of the Community
The provisions as they relate to the role of the community also address matters related to citizen’s rights. Simply, every citizen has a right to not be discriminated against based on their race or ethnicity. Every right gives rise to an obligation. Therefore, every citizen is also under an obligation not to make racial and ethnic distinctions and as such play a positive role in preventing racial and ethnic discrimination, and ultimately play a significant role in the process of eliminating racial and ethnic discrimination altogether.

Compensation
The law provides for compensation claims in the event that a citizen has been discriminated against. The claim can be either as an individual or as a class action where there are multiple claimants. Claims are to be lodged at the District Court.

Criminal Provisions
The criminal sanctions in the law allow for terms of imprisonment of between 1 and 5 years and fines of between IDR 100 million and IDR 500 million. The penalties for corporations attract a premium of 1/3.

Closing Provisions
Once the Law enters into force all current racial and ethnic discrimination laws remain in place unless they contradict the provisions of this law. If they do, then the provisions of the law will prevail.

Operation
The Law came into immediate force once it is enacted.

Conclusion

It is clear that the government through the enactment of this bill into law is intent on removing the scourge of racial and ethnic conflict and violence from the Indonesian scene. The law will clearly be complementary to other existing discrimination laws and consolidates and strengthens the overall anti-discrimination regulatory framework.

Nevertheless, there are parts of the law that need further work to clarify matters such as affirmative action programs to ensure balance where natural balance does not occur.

The reality is that enforcement will be the key. If there is lax enforcement of the provisions, simply the government refuses to take action where it can to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination then the underlying issues that trigger racial and ethnic conflict will remain, and remain unchecked.

The Moment of Truth for a Post-Racial Candidate

Is there such a thing as a "post-racial" candidate (photo)? Well, the moment of truth is upon our US brothers and sisters in this most crucial of elections.

I know some of my readers do not giver the proverbial rat's about what happens and who wins. As a student of politics and law, I am interested. To think that the US might finally elect a black man, an African-American if you prefer, is a momentous step, at least in my mind.

Maybe by this time tomorrow we will know who the next president of the US will be. Then again some polls are reporting a tightening race that seems like it might be heading down to the wire.

I like elections!

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

The House of Representatives (DPR) passed the Bill on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination on 28 October 2008. The bill has been in the process of being passed since 2005 when it first arose as a DPR Initiative. Indonesia already has a racial discrimination law, Law No. 29 of 1999, which is the enactment of Indonesia’s responsibilities and obligations as a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The premise of the bill is that everyone is born the same in the eyes of God and that everyone is equal before the law. Nevertheless, these aspirations now have a little more gravitas as they have been codified into law. The need for the codification is that all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination are contrary to the principles contained in Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The definition of what constitutes discrimination is broad and can be civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. Race and ethnicity are also defined. The point of eliminating discrimination is to promote and ensure harmony, peace, and security, among others. Discrimination is defined as any action that seeks to distinguish or differentiate individuals or makes exceptions for individuals. The bill and the Elucidations are silent on what impact this might have on any affirmative action programs that may arise in the future.

The bill also regulates hate speech and vilification in Article 4.

The supervision of the provisions of the bill is to be done by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).

The bill provides for compensation claims in the event that a citizen has been discriminated against. The claim can be either as an individual or as a class action where there are multiple claimants. Claims are to be lodged at the District Court.

The criminal sanctions in the bill allow for terms of imprisonment of between 1 and 5 years and fines of between IDR 100 million and IDR 500 million. The penalties for corporations attract a premium of 1/3.

Once the bill enters into force all current racial and ethnic discrimination laws remain in place unless they contradict the provisions of this bill. If they do, then the provisions of the bill will prevail.

The bill will come into immediate force once it is enacted.

Palin, A Stripped Moose, African-Americans, and Jews

If you fail to see the connection then you should feel comfortable with the fact that you are probably not the only one.

But here it is and straight from the mouth of Rep. Alcee Hastings (the Rep. standing for Representative and meaning he is a Congressman in the US) who is a Democrat and former Hillary Clinton supporter and now vocal Barack Obama supporter.

This is what was said:

“anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”

This was a comment made to a group of African-American and Jewish Democrats and by all reports brought hoots of laughter and applause from all in attendance.

The idea that being able to shoot and strip a moose in any way reflects how one views race and religion relationships is about the same as Republicans claiming that Barack Obama's middle name says something about how he will deal with Muslims and Non-Muslims. Or that Obama's middle name in some way brings into question his Christian beliefs. It is bizarre and it is stupid!

Anyone who thinks that race and religion are not going to be important factors in this US Presidential race need to think again. Even with the US economy on the brink of free-fall into a recession (some might say the abyss of depression), the idea that race and religion keep coming to the fore says something about this historic moment for the US.

I am not an American. But, if I was I think there are more important things at stake in this presidential election other than whether Sarah Palin can strip a moose or the fact that Obama's middle name is Hussain.

Then again that's just me!

Race Politics -- Personal Musings

I have been having one of those mornings where I have not been able to sleep. In order to avoid doing work, I surf the Internet. I have been reading a little about race politics, playing the race card, and whether the US is a post-race nation. This got me thinking, probably no surprise to those that know me best, about how this debate would play out in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Constitution of 1945 would seem to support an argument that any Indonesian citizen born in this country, Indonesia, has a right to become its president. The Indonesian term is "orang asli" which loosely would translation to original person, and herein lies the problem. Does the term refer exclusively to indigenous Indonesians or does it also include the important and vibrant communities that trace their respective ancestries through to China, India, and the lands of the Middle East? Even more interestingly is does it include Indonesians who trace their ancestries to European roots who were born and raised in Indonesia from birth?

There has traditionally been a feeling that the highest office in the land was only opened to pribumi or indigenous Indonesians. My problem with this is that Indonesia is a socio-political construct and as such who is indigenous in this sense? Some have even gone as far as to say that one must be Javanese to gain the highest office. Unfortunately, for those that believe this, Soeharto chose one B.J. Habibie to be his Vice President. When Soeharto stepped down and Habibie became President these arguments were no longer valid. Habibie was was not Javanese.

The point of posting is not to write a 50-page tome on the merits or lack thereof of race-based politics. I can publish that research in a journal if it is good enough! Rather my intent here is in light of recent violence between religious followers and between ethnicities within Indonesia, perhaps an evaluation of race relations and politics is warranted.

I feel that Indonesia must sooner or later stand up and stare down those who flame the tensions simmering within Indonesian communities. This stand has to be one for tolerance, acceptance, and unity.

Many will argue that Indonesia is about being diverse but unified (or as some claim fragmented but one) yet this is hardly played out in real life. There must be a time where Indonesians identify not as pribumi and non-pribumi, or as Arab Indonesians, or Indian Indonesians, or Chinese Indonesians, but rather as "Indonesians". Maybe there is a need to return to a more literal understanding of the ideology of Pancasila (Five Principles).

After more than 60 years of independence Indonesia is still squabbling about race, about religion, and about tolerance! The founding fathers and mothers of this nation are undoubtedly rolling in their graves!