“Cheesy Girl”, it seems an Indonesian in Jakarta who lives and works among expatriates, and once had a westerner boyfriend who had a rash on his stomach and stank of fish, writes in her blog about bules or westerners/expats in Indonesia, that they

• are not experts in anything
• are stupid
• are incredibly pampered in Indonesia
• are nobodies back home
• don’t clean themselves properly after going to the toilet
• rarely wash their hands
• rarely bathe
• stink of fish
• have spotted skin
• act as if they own Jakarta
• are ill mannered
• bring disease because they are filthy
• are barbarians with big mouths
• are only allowed to come to Indonesia because the government needs tax revenue

She would like to list more of their faults but

There would not be enough pages to bad mouth of those fouls [fools? foul people?].

Expat workers are not needed:

We, Jakartans, are the experts of our own country. We do not need any bule, I underline, ANY BULE, to come here and take all the credit for being stupid and bule. We know the know-how of Indonesian system (If there is any, but it is still a system anyhow), we understand how the society demands, we could talk to our fellow country men.

A la the Achmad Sudarsono of old she states her mission: [1]

My fingers are as unleashed as my tongue and I will do what I have to bring in knowledge and truth to my fellow countrymen.

Hello Misterrrr

Some westerners in Jakarta, possibly with skin or other diseases, playing up for the camera in “Hello Misterrr”.

This is a post from the Indonesia Matters website.

• ↑1 cheesychunk.blogspot

Tags: Blog, Blogs, Bule, Bules, Disease, Expatriates, Expats, Hate Speech, Jakarta, post templates, sample template, Western, Westerners

Neighbours from Hell? Myths and Madura

Madura is the butt of a bad joke. Just mention the place in the company of most Indonesians and you’ll get a laugh. If those Indonesians are young men then the laughter will be accompanied by obscene leering – for let’s spell it out now to save coy insinuations later: Madurese women are reported to have a certain unique sexual talent involving, shall we say, internal contractions of some kind. Generally though, the sniggers will be of snobbish contempt shot through with the unmistakable symptoms of fear.

Madura & the Madurese

Madura is the long, low island that rides off the northeast coast of Java. It is almost as big as Bali, and with a population of 3 million. There is probably no other place in Indonesia with such a strange reputation, nor a people so subjected to negative prejudice – with the exception of the Chinese.

If antipathy towards the Chinese in Indonesia in many ways resembles old-fashioned British class resentment of “the posh bastards” of the upper classes, then the attitude towards the Madurese is unmistakably correspondent to British middle class terror of the “chavs”, the working class poor.

A thumbnail sketch of the Madurese in the eyes of many other Indonesians is something like this:

• They come from a hot, filthy place.
• They speak a spectacularly coarse language, riddled with swearwords, which sounds offensive even if you can’t understand it.
• They know nothing of politeness.
• They are aggressive, quick to anger, and potentially violent.
• They are hard-working, but probably not in a good way.
• They have criminal tendencies.
• Oh yeah, and that thing about their women…

Transmigrants & Ethnic Cleansing

You don’t need to go to Madura to find Madurese: they form a significant part of the transmigrant populations of the archipelago. With all that aggression and swearing they do not, it is said, make good neighbours.

The most famous example of the difficulties migrant Madurese populations have with other people came in Kalimantan. Between 1996 and 2001 there were a string of violent conflicts between native Dayaks (and also, crucially but to a lesser extent, long-established local Malays) and Madurese transmigrants. The sparks that ignited the outbreaks of killing are shadowy, rumour-riddled, and frankly impossible to verify: reports of Madurese youths attacking or robbing Dayaks, Madurese harassing Malay women, interethnic fist fights at street parties, and so on.

But these flashpoints were irrelevant; the principle complaint of the Dayaks (and Malays) was that the Madurese were “impossible to live with.

And if people are impossible to LIVE with, then there is only one way to respond.

Despite their supposed capacity for ferocity, the Madurese fared badly in Kalimantan. It was less of a “war” than an ethnic cleansing. How many people were killed is disputed. It was certainly in the thousands. There are persistent reports of ritualised cannibalism. The Dayaks are said to have eaten the Madurese.

But ask many Indonesians where their sympathies lie in these events and they may mutter something about “an understandable response to provocation”.

The Historical Explanation

Some stereotypes about different peoples are actually true.

It would take the most deluded of “liberal bed-wetters” to deny that. But so much of the talk about the Madurese is eerily reminiscent of the vicious things that have been said in Europe about Jews and Gypsies that alarm bells start to ring.

If you want to accept the standard image of the Madurese, then surely you need also to conclude that all Gypsies ARE dirty thieves, that all Jews are dirty, GREEDY thieves, and while we’re at it, that all Chinese Indonesians are elitist, money-grubbing snobs with no commitment to the country. Oh, and we might as well concede that all bules are drunken paedophiles at the same time…

There have been many attempts to understand hostility to groups like Jews and Gypsies, “the other” within society. Some of the points are universal: we don’t like people who are identifiably different from ourselves. But much of it is specific.

The principle characteristic of hostility towards the Madurese, no matter how well disguised with contemptuous snobbery, is fear. A quick glance at history may go some way to explain that nervousness.

Madura is dry, with poor limestone soils. No one ever chose to go and live there from elsewhere (except, incidentally, some Chinese refugees from colonial era conflicts on Java). But many people came FROM the place in search of work and a better life - a perfect initial recipe for hostility (there are very close parallels between the Madurese experience and that of Irish migrants to mainland Britain in the 20th Century).

But the distinctive fear perhaps comes from elsewhere: it was not only economic migrants who crossed the Madura Strait, but also rebels.

Madura converted to Islam earlier than most of Java. A date of 1528 is often given, but legends in Sumenep put the first conversions of local rulers some two centuries before that, which, if true, would make it one of the very earliest bastions of Islam in the entire archipelago.

Even before these conversions Madura had proved a troublesome possession for nominal Javanese overlords. Arosbaya, the first leader to unite the entire island in the 15th Century, and others, were somewhat unruly vassals of Majapahit.

But it was Majapahit’s Islamic successors, the Mataram dynasty, who had the most trouble from Madura.

Most celebrated of the Madurese rabble-rousers was Trunajaya in the 17th Century. A Madurese prince, he seized control of the west of the island (theoretically under the rule of Mataram) in 1670s and then led an army of 14,000 rebels across the Strait and into the Javanese heartland.

For a decade this troublesome prince cloaked himself in a shroud of Islamic, mystical and Majapahit associations and rampaged through Mataram, eventually destroying the capital. He was finally killed in Kediri, but he was not the last of the Madurese rebels. Half a century later Cakraningrat IV of West Madura – still supposedly a Mataram vassal – led another attack, and again destroyed the Mataram palace.

On a smaller scale Madurese were often mercenaries and key figures in low level rebellions throughout Javanese history.

This all probably goes a long way to explaining Javanese (and therefore by default, Indonesian) nervousness of Madurese: they are people likely to come surging across the water to upset the balance of things. Attitudes such as this survive long after the memory of the initial events has faded, and it is not as fanciful as it seems to suggest that fear of modern Madurese has a direct link to the rebellions against Mataram.

And as for the alleged rudeness, could it not simply be cultural difference? Javanese culture is typified by (and sometimes mocked for) its obsessive politeness, its emphasis on hierarchy, its multi-layered speech and insistence on correct form. The Madurese are not necessarily rude in comparison to this; they are simply different. But living in such close proximity, awareness of this difference becomes pronounced and extended into hostility.

The Madurese are no ruder than say, the Timorese; it’s just that the Javanese haven’t been living next door to the Timorese for centuries, haven’t had a chance to crystallize that sense of difference into bad-mouthing hostility, and to export it, along with the rest of Java’s cultural dominance, to the entire archipelago.

Perhaps in Kalimantan alleged Madurese bad behaviour was purely incidental at a time of social, economic and political upheaval. In the past the Dayaks have attacked Kalimantan’s Chinese. Maybe if the Madurese hadn’t been there they would have done so again, or perhaps instead of teaming up for a bout of ethnic cleansing, Malays and Dayaks would have turned on each other.

But the Madurese were there, and bizarrely, rather than prompting sympathy, their fate only furthered their ill-repute as “neighbours from hell”.

The Real Madura

So, what is Madura really like? I think it’s a beautiful, peaceful place; drier than Java, but not stark or arid, and with a sharp oceanic clarity to the light that is missing in so much of Indonesia. It’s not dirty either, and it is far from the outpost of Islamic severity that many presume it to be (there is a big difference between places that have traditionally been relatively orthodox, and places that harbour newer pretensions to orthodoxy).

Sumenep, in the far east, is as refined a little town as anywhere in Java with royal courtly traditions and the “softest” Madurese dialect, typified the same linguistic hierarchy as “proper” Javanese.

Clinging to their insistence that the Madurese are horrible, many Javanese will whinge in response to this that “Sumenep is different, they’re ok there, but go to Bangkalan, that’s where they’re really bad…”

Well, I’ve been there too, and to every other town; no one swore at me; no one was rude. If I had to pinpoint one Madurese characteristic it would be a sense of humour rather than aggression.

Madurese people are well aware of their reputation, and often display a wry amusement at it.

On the topic of violence it is true that they all know how to wield a clurit (the trademark Madurese sickle), they say, but in the corn field more often than in battle.

And in a place with a lack of water and pronounced ideas about honour, conflict over women and irrigation were common in the past.

But Indonesia is a nation with a history of violence. Many people know that the Balinese took the national amok during the anti-communist pogroms of 1965-66 to uniquely frenzied levels that shook even the military instigators. But no one claims that the Balinese are a specially bloodthirsty and violent people. They’re not. And neither are the Madurese.

A Madurese friend once said to me that part of his people’s reputation was due to the way they respond when they leave their homeland. Laid-back and good-humoured at home, they are unsettled by the poverty and chaos they find in big cities, and harsh words and aggression are the response.

Perhaps, but I’m not so sure, because I find I like the Madurese outside of Madura too.

In Surabaya there may be a significant number of Madurese thugs and criminals, but some 15% of the city’s population is Madurese (and a disproportionately poor 15% at that) so it’s hardly any wonder. And the Madurese markets and kampungs I’ve wandered through are some of the friendliest, FUNNIEST places.

I’ve not seen too much of the Madurese populations in other cities, though I’ve met sate-hawkers everywhere from Timor to Sumatra. And I did once spend a few hours in the scavengers’ kampung not far from Plaza Senayan, just down the road from the Pizza Man statue in Jakarta. You can’t see it from the road; it’s behind a fence of corrugated aluminium.

There are goats and chickens and mounds of empty plastic bottles, and skyscrapers march away in jagged lines in beyond the fringes of the little village. Poor migrants from all over Java live there.

For a while I chatted with a quiet, dignified man from Cilacap who spoke softly, and respectfully. Then I went and joined a little mob of Madurese youths reclining in the shade. They were rather different from the man from Cilacap: all hearty laughter, back-slapping and jokes. To someone from a culture steeped in formality and control they might have seemed boorish and awful. To me they just seemed like a lot of fun.

On a final note however, before anyone asks, I must make it clear that I know nothing about their women…

This is a post from the Indonesia Matters website.

Tags: 1965, Amok, Bali, Chinese, Cilacap, Criminals, Culture, Dayak, Ethnic, History, Indonesians, Islam, Islamic, Jakarta, Java, Javanese, Kalimantan, Kediri, Language, Madura, Madurese, Majapahit, Malay, Mataram, Men, Plaza Senayan, Poverty, Rebellions, Sex, Sumenep, Surabaya, Violence, War, Women

Megawati is determined to run once again for president in 2009, and her chances of success largely seem to depend on forming the best coalition, and having an appealing running-mate, or at least one more appealing than her 2004 partner, dull Hasyim Muzadi. These are the names which are usually mentioned in this respect:

• Akbar Tandjung
• Wiranto
• Sultan Hamengkubuwono X
• Hidayat Nur Wahid
• Sutiyoso

Other figures who have been mentioned in the past:

• Agung Laksono
• Jusuf Kalla
• Din Syamsuddin

Megawati’s best chance of success is thought to lie in an alliance with Hidayat Nurwahid of the PKS (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera), with Maruarar Sirait of the PDIP suggesting the two would be an unbeatable team, with the PKS strong in the towns, the PDIP strong in the villages.

Hidayat Nur Wahid

However Mohamad Nabil of the Centre for Religion and Culture at UIN says the PKS in joining up with Megawati would ruin its reputation for consistency, given that it has in the past rejected the idea that women can lead (see Khofifah Indar Parawansa), it’s most loyal supporters would lose faith in it, and see it as a “sell out”, a mean power grab.

Yudi Latif from the Reform Institute says the secular nationalism of the PDIP and the Islamism of the PKS cannot be reconciled. [1]

A recent poll by Indo Barometer, in the wake of fuel price increases, puts Megawati’s support at 30%, as opposed to president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 20%. [2]

1. ↑1 inilah
2. ↑2 jakartapost

Tags: Agung Laksono, Akbar Tandjung, Din Syamsuddin, Elections, Hasyim Muzadi, Hidayat Nurwahid, Islamism, Jusuf Kalla, Megawati, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PDI Perjuangan, PDIP, Pemilu 2009, PKS, Political Parties, Politics, Sultan Hamengkubuwono, Sutiyoso, Wiranto

The Indonesian film industry has tried many different genres, from comedy to religious to drama to teen romances, but currently have decided that horror films are their best bet to draw in audiences, says one Tasha Hadifitri. This is not entirely a problem by itself, the appalling standard of the films is however.

The main point of the films, says Tasha, is just to show as much gore and violence as possible, without bothering whether the story makes sense, and the producers keep re-using the same figures of horror in each film, like the dreaded hopping/floating pocong ghost, or the kuntilanak vampire.

A Pocong.

Tasha goes on to complain that such films make the people who watch them, well, stupid, too inclined to believe in mysticism, and over-fearful. People even try to act out scenes they’ve watched, get in touch with spirits, or visit dukun, or shaman.

The “other world” does exist, she says, but it is better if that world and this world keep their distance from each other, the beings in either world each have their own purpose and they should not disturb one another. [1]

Here are some samples of recent pocong fare:

Largely incoherent trailer for “40 Hari Bangkitnya Pocong”.

Lots of kissing in this one, “Tali Pocong Perawan”.

1. ↑1 kabarindonesia

Tags: Dukun, Films, Ghosts, Kissing, Kuntilanak, Movies, Pocong, Shaman, Tali Pocong Perawan, Violence

Engagement

On 16th April PKS leader Hidayat Nurwahid became engaged to a 42 year old woman of Arab descent, Diana Abbas Thalib.

Proposing.

Widow & Widower

Diana Abbas Thalib is the director of a maternity hospital in Jakarta and lives in swanky Kemang. She has one child from a previous marriage (her husband died) and on May 10th, the wedding day, will come into possession of four more, from Hidayat’s marriage to Kastrian Indrawati.

Kastrian Indrawati died on January 22nd 2008 and Hidayat says:

From the day she died it was proper that people made suggestions [for a replacement].

Diana was introduced to Hidayat by another Justice Party politician Yoyoh Yusroh, who is her religious instructor, a month ago. Diana and Hidayat then met each other two times, never alone, and thereafter decided to end their mutual loneliness and marry.

Yoyoh Yusroh, matchmaker.

When Hidayat proposed to Diana he had some solid male support behind him, including politicians Aksa Mahmud, AM Fatwa, and Mooryati Soedibyo, while Diana was accompanied by friends and family.

Competitive Arabness

Diana admits that she is actually “beaten” by Hidayat in the being-like-an-Arab stakes. While she is of Arab stock she considers herself fully assimilated into Javanese culture while her fiance spent many years living in Arab countries. [1]

He’s more Arab than me.

Family First

Both say that the most important thing is that they each have a companion in life and are able to provide a family structure for their children.

Big Shots

Hidayat has already asked president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and vice-president Jusuf Kalla to be witnesses at the wedding, while Din Syamsuddin and Hasyim Muzadi will officiate. [2]

1. ↑1 banjarmasinpost
2. ↑2 antara

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Defend Jamaah Ahmadiyah! Stop the Witchhunt!

The Indonesian government’s proposed decree to ban Jamaah Ahmadiyah as a “heretical sect” must be met by vigorous protests. The right of all Indonesian citizens to practice their religious beliefs as enshrined in the constitution must be defended. Immediate measures must be taken to halt the climate of fear and hostility that is being whipped up by religious fundamentalists toward the members of Ahmadiyah. Stop the persecution of Jamaah Ahmadiyah members! Defend Ahmadiyah against attacks and reprisals!

What makes both mainstream and fundamentalist religious leaders in Indonesia so scared of Ahmadiyah? Are not the beliefs of millions of Indonesian citizens or the central tenets of the Islamic faith strong enough to withstand the beliefs, ideas and practices of a few thousand Jamaah Ahmadiyah members? The issue is essentially not about the religious beliefs and practices of Ahmadiyah. This is a smoke and mirror argument to hide another agenda. It is about how, what and who will control the minds, bodies and actions of Indonesia’s millions of increasingly angry and discontented poor. Ada udang di balik batu, there is a hidden agenda.

The vast majority of Indonesian citizens living in abject poverty facing daily uncertainty in finding work, food, education, decent health care and a future for their children. There is a very palpable anger against the misery and degradation of their lives that is caused by the ineptitude and corruption of the small layer of rich. In turn, the elite have a real fear that they are sitting on top of a social volcano that could explode anytime. Hence, it is no coincidence that the government, religious organisations and individuals consciously and cynically seek to co-opt the basic religious beliefs of Indonesian citizens and the resurgence of Islam in public life for the simple reason that Islam, like all religions, is an excellent instrument to control and coerce the population.

Besides wealth, corruption and connections, pandering to the basic Islamic, social and cultural beliefs of the population, is now, in Indonesia the simplest and most opportunistic method to gain political advantage. Over the last few years we have witnessed a never ending parade of politicians, who are inevitably always male, jostle to outdo each other in a struggle to posture themselves as “more” Islamic than the other candidate and who all have plans to halt the so-called decay in society’s morals through upholding the “word of god” and applying Sharia law.

Once in power all they can do is introduce ill-conceived, anti-women Sharia inspired by-laws as some kind of magical “silver bullet” panacea to cure all problems! As can be easily predicted, women suffer at the hands of religious dogma and everything else, the poverty, lack of decent education, health care, services, roads etc remains pretty much the same.

The consequences and results of this are serious and disturbing for all citizens, but especially for women and minorities. Many of these by-laws have an unhealthy obsession with sex, morals and supposed ‘deviancy’; and almost all are attacks on the basic rights of all women.

It can also be comic and daft like the Batu local government in East Java issuing an informal ruling requiring women who work in massage parlors to use a kind of chastity padlock on their clothing whilst performing their work! Besides pandering to the hoary myth of the women as temptress, the people who thought up this regulation obviously did not think too much about the immense variety of sexual contact that is possible between humans and how a padlock won’t really stop humans seeking “forbidden fruit”. Does the ruling extend to male masseuses as well? Is the next step to force women to gag their mouths as well?

Thus the attacks on Ahmadiyah must be seen as part of a campaign of social and religious reaction aimed at regimenting and intimidating the entire Indonesian population.

NU Chairman Hasyim Muzadi is quoted in the Jakarta Post, 18 April as saying

In Islam, Ahmadiyah is deviant. It is the government’s domain to outlaw it or not for stability reasons.

So exactly what is Ahmadiyah guilty of deviating from? Or is it just a case of holding nonconformist beliefs that are contrary to the self-styled orthodoxy of the parasitic caste of Ulema (Islamic priests) who have a vested interest in maintaining their “brand” of Islam, and ensuring that the money and influence that they derive from this position continues to flow. The so-called guardians of Islamic orthodoxy seem to forget the adage that the heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next age. Today in Indonesia faith and religion are business and business is booming and that means their “brand” of Islam must be protected against potential business competitors.

In Indonesian society as a whole, what once were considered to be harmless, kooky or fundamentalist fringe beliefs are now becoming increasingly mainstream. On the surface it seems that the Indonesian central government and the state apparatus at all levels of government are more and more being influenced by; and subverted from within and without by conservative religious leaders and an increasingly vocal political Islam. In the case of Ahmadiyah and other banned religious organisations the Indonesian government is definitely taken a clear role in determining what you can and cannot believe, and thus become an energetic enforcer of Islamic religious orthodoxy. But who does this serve? Are Indonesians ready to accept this type of governmental religious indoctrination? Are Muslims themselves willing to let the government and a small number of conservative religious leaders tell them what they should believe and how to practice their faith?

Humans created god as an image of ourselves in our heads and then we subjugated ourselves and bowed down to worship our own image. Should people choose to worship god via religions that profess different beliefs and practices, then the state has no place in deciding whether the beliefs and practices of its citizens are true, or deviant or not. Religion ought to be a private matter in relation to the state and people should be free to practice their religion without state persecution and religious bigotry. The aim of instilling a religious “orthodoxy” is fundamentally to control and coerce the population and instill fear and obedience to authority.

All religion at its core has a duality; it is both an instrument of oppression and a comfort for the oppressed. As Karl Marx once wrote,

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Historically, the religiosity of black people in America was a solace from racial oppression and a promise of deliverance. For the millions of poor in Indonesia religion performs the same role, giving people hope amidst grinding poverty and lack of opportunity. As a narcotic it can soothe or block out the pain of the world but can it solve real world material problems or fix an economic or social crisis of the magnitude that Indonesia has suffered since the fall of Suharto? If anything it distracts, confuses and hinders people from finding real solution to the problems of poverty and hunger because one of religions major roles in society is to instill respect for authority and act as a conservatising force. Together with the family, it serves to instil a morality that forbids anything that deviates from an “imagined” ideal — everything from your political beliefs, to who you can have sex with, to what you can eat.

To be sure, the Indonesian elite will continue to be trained at private universities that are beyond the reach of the poor and have good prospects for their personal future. But what about the future of for Indonesia? The anti-women obscurantist fundamentalist religious dogma pushed by elements of the ruling class will actually retard the overall development of Indonesian society. The only people who will benefit from more religion will be the parasitic Ulema caste and capitalists. For the poor, the women, the gays and the ethnic and religious minorities it will mean more rules, more social control, more persecution and continued impoverishment and majority Muslim masses will be kept quiet and docile waiting for a place in an imagined heaven in the skies.

Can religion solve the most pressing problems of hunger, poverty, lack of decent housing, education, medical and social services? Can religious orthodoxy supply an ideology that could seemingly harmonize conflicting class interests while keeping Indonesian society ordered? Will the grand plans of Sharia inspired law and Caliphates truly bring a just and prosperous society? These are the real questions to ask those people who sell the product of religion as the road to the future. Today, however, the material reality of poverty however perpetuates uncertainty, fear, and competition for scarce resources and ethnic/religious conflicts. The blame for this state of affairs is placed on the religious and ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups such as gays and lesbians. Ahmadiyah is a current victim of this type of intolerance and persecution. The right of all Indonesian citizens to live life in peace and to practice their religious beliefs as enshrined in the constitution must be defended and that is why it is imperative to protest the proposing banning of Ahmadiyah.

It is a case of an injury to one is an injury to all. Remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Stop the persecution of Jamaah Ahmadiyah members! Defend Ahmadiyah!

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