Vice President Jumps On Anti-Playboy Bandwagon

Jakarta, 27 Jan. (AKI) - Indonesia's vice president Jusuf Kalla has added his voice to a growing row over the publication in Indonesia of the famous American porno mag Playboy. "Here we are not in the US, even in Singapore they have opposed it" said Kalla, defining the launch, due in March, as "an error".

The imminent arrival in the majority Muslim nation of a magazine that made its name by its portraits of naked women, has triggered a row that shows no signs of diminishing. Yet as the moralising continues, local sex shops report a boom in business.Some one thousand members of the so-called Muslim Movement against Vice", chanting slogans, ceremoniously burned bundles of erotic magazines outside the Hotel Indonesia in the centre of Jakarta on Thursday.

It was just the latest in a series of protests since the announcement that Playboy was to be launched in Indonesia. And in recent days, though Playboy is the catalyst, the moral crusaders have widened their scope.

The promise by Ponti Carolus, the director of the local firm that has bought the rights of Playboy, to tone down the contents has not placated various Muslim leaders. Among these, some argue that the arrival of Playboy will lead to the moral decline of the country.

Such attention is unwelcome in Jakarta, where the pornographic industry is alive and well.

First time visitors are often surprised to note local tabloid publications such as Boss, Expose and Dugem, which show semi nude local beauties on their covers and publish articles dealing with domestic abuse, sexual violence and incest.

These magazines, which cost 2,000 rupiahs, (17 US cents) are certainly more accessible to large swathes of the population than Playboy which aims for a niche market that can afford to spend 30,000 rupiah per issue.

That surprise increases when the visitor explores Glodok, the Chinese quarter just to the north of the capital where 'hard core' porn DVDs are on sale for a mere 10,000 rupias (87 US cents) with offers like 'pay for five, get six'.

The moral repugnance of some Islamic groups for Playboy is not shared by many local Indonesian beauties who have in the past graced the covers of soft porn magazines.

The Playboy cyclone arrives in Indonesia as parliament is discussing possible amendments to the pornography law. Among the proposed modifications are deeming indecent - therefore illegal - kissing in public, wearing very revealing clothes, and even dancing the dangdut, the typical Indonesian dance which can be described as a cross between belly dancing and hip hop.