[Kabar-indonesia] AT: Indonesian Dancer, Clerics Go Toe-to-Toe

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

Asia Times
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Indonesian Dancer, Clerics Go Toe-to-Toe 

By Duncan Graham 

GEMBOL, East Java - Westerners who have seen concerts or videos featuring 
Indonesia's top entertainer Inul Daratista wonder what the fuss is all about. The 
archipelago's No 1 dangdut singer and dancer performs fully dressed - and 
stays 
that way. 

Sure, her pants test Lycra's stretch ratings and she does a rather basic 
ferret-in-a-sack wiggle that leaves lots to the imagination. By Western 
standards of risque, however, it's a bit of a bum show. 

But not in Indonesia, where the nation's moral guardians are fighting to 
purge 
the land of so-called Western influences. Ironically, perhaps, dangdut has no 
Hollywood antecedents; it's a mix of thumping, jangling Indian, Malay and 
Arab music that sounds like a cacophony to many outsiders. 

It's Inul's bottom-rotating ngebor (boring, as in drilling) dance style that 
the country's Muslim clerics say they find lewd and a threat to national 
morals. Infuriated by her growing popularity, success and independence, they are 
now pushing for new legislation outlawing a range of codes and behaviors, which, 
if implemented, would throw a cold blanket on her act. 

Most of the proposed legal provisions concern the way women dress and behave. 
Liberals see the bill as a bid to impose strict Islamic sharia law on the 
nation, where an estimated 90% of the 240 million population consider themselves 
Muslim. 

These are just the bubbles on the surface; below is a seething cauldron of 
gender politics, state control of the arts, and the future shape of Indonesia's 
infant democracy. And Inul's gyrating dance is at the heart of the 
controversy. 

Inul was an unknown from the industrial East Java town of Gempol who hit the 
capital Jakarta's big time in 2003 with her ngebor style. In many ways, her 
dancing captured the ebullient mood of a country boldly experimenting with 
long-repressed freedoms. 

During president Suharto's 32-year dictatorship, dangdut was fully 
appropriated and manipulated by the government. The traditional music's raunchy lyrics 
and movements were cleaned up and it was toned down to promote state-determined 
values. 

Singer and presidential favorite Rhoma Irama became the state-appointed king 
of dangdut, then reigning on the government-run television stations. In 1998, 
Suharto fell, media restrictions were lifted, private TV stations opened, and 
artists started freely expressing themselves for the first time in decades. 

Including Inul - and to Rhoma's displeasure. He banned her from using his 
songs and condemned her for corrupting dangdut. In fact, Inul had really returned 
dangdut back to its village roots, asserting its home-grown robustness, 
expressing the hopes and fears of the country's poor and downtrodden. Simply put, 
dangdut is the music of the poor and Inul is their gutsy gal. 

Now she faces a much bigger threat from the country's increasingly vocal and 
politically powerful Islamic fundamentalist groups. Although the hardline 
Indonesian Ulemas' Council listed her performances under an Islamic fatwa against 
pornography, the controversy just helped to draw bigger crowds. 

In the 2004 general election, she became the warm-up act most wanted for 
political rallies. A record 3 million copies of her pirated video were reported to 
have been sold. Inul lookalikes popped up everywhere. 

Pornographic interpretations
Fast-forward to the present. The proposed bill against pornography and 
"pornographic acts" - which includes the exposure of female flesh - is clearly 
directed at the likes of Inul and her multiplying imitators. 

Political commentators claim that the raging debate has exposed a national 
fault line - pitching the insular, poorly educated, easily led majority in the 
countryside versus the more urbane, better-schooled city folk with liberal 
pretensions - that will be hard to bridge. The latter are the noisier group - but 
they don't have the numbers, so the controversial bill may yet become law. 

The president, former military general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has given 
some comfort to the bill's supporters by throwing out of the state palace a 
dancer who planned to expose her midriff during a performance. He has also 
publicly condemned the public display of female navels. 

The bill's backers have branded opponents broadly as moral corruptors. Such 
ethnic groups as the Balinese, whose bare-shouldered traditional dress would be 
banned under the planned legislation, have joined Jakarta entertainers in 
protest rallies where Inul has been prominent. Her group says there are already 
plenty of laws on the statutes to protect society and that the anti-pornography 
law is unnecessary for a democratic society. 

For speaking out on the issue, though, Inul has been ordered out of Jakarta 
by the Betawi Brotherhood - a fundamentalist group that claims to act on behalf 
of the city's traditional folk. One of Inul's karaoke lounges has already 
been attacked by a mob from the Islamic Defenders' Front - another band of thugs 
in Muslim garb - and she has been publicly condemned by various other 
hardliners. 

During Suharto's rule demonstrations were tightly controlled and protests 
rapidly suppressed - often brutally. Under democracy, street rallies and random 
acts of violence have become commonplace - often under the passive gaze of 
police officials. Recently, Yodhoyono indicated that he would move against violent 
religious groups, but so far there have been no significant round-ups or 
arrests. 

That has Inul's supporters on edge that she could become a high-profile 
target for extremists. "I don't intend to leave Jakarta and I'm not afraid of the 
Betawi," Inul said from her home in East Java. "I'm afraid of the way that the 
government is handling the problem. I'm frightened about what's happening to 
Indonesia." 

Unlike many other successful celebrities who flee their origins for an 
exclusive address, Inul has remained loyal to her roots. Although she employs 
security guards in Jakarta, her home in Gempol relies on neighborhood support for 
protection, she said. 

So far, the personal attacks seem to have saddened the unpretentious 
29-year-old rather than suppressing her fighting spirit. Her dancing career started 
when she was 12, and she's often described by her supporters as tough, 
self-assured and determined. And, significantly, she's a devoted Muslim, albeit of the 
moderate kind. 

"I'm a Muslim, serious about my faith. I regret the things some Muslim 
clerics are saying," Inul said in an interview. "Why are they bothering with 
anti-pornography? Why are they always talking about women? The priorities in this 
country should be getting people jobs and a better education." 

Inul said she employed more than 750 staff at her seven karaoke lounges. She 
has also been approached by a number of political parties to consider a career 
in politics, but so far she has declined all of the offers. "It's too 
corrupt," she said. 

Through her spirited fight against the anti-pornography bill, she has fast 
emerged as one of Indonesia's most visible women's rights activists. "I want to 
lift the status of women. I want them to be brave enough to take risks." 

More than words, it's an example by which the vibrant dancer lives. 

Australian journalist Duncan Graham (www.indonesianow.blogspot.com) lives in 
Surabaya, East Java. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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