An Indonesian lawmaker is being shielded by his party after he was filmed watching porn on his phone during a recent committee meeting at the House of Parliament (DPR).
A video recently went viral showing the politician paying attention to the phone in his hand while a woman at the meeting can be heard talking about COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the country. On his phone screen was a pornographic video, which the politician watched for at least half a minute while somebody filmed him from above.
The lawmaker has been identified as Harvey Malaiholo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and a member of Commission IX of DPR (boomers might recognize him as a singer who shot to fame in the late '70s). Harvey is set to appear before the DPR's ethics board over the clip, but PDI-P has been quick to claim that he was a victim.
"We're not shifting blame, but our colleague received [a link] via WhatsApp," PDI-P Secretary Bambang Wuryanto said yesterday. "When he clicked the WhatsApp [link], out popped that video."
Bambang also urged caution to other lawmakers towards what he described as entrapment and to be more careful when opening online links.
He added that Harvey has testified to PDI-P leadership, during which he cried while claiming that he has never – and would never – willingly watch porn at work.
The Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) appreciated PDI-P for owning up to their cadre being caught in the video, but criticized the party for shielding Harvey from blame when they should support punitive measures against him.
Harvey is not the first Indonesian lawmaker to be caught watching porn at work. In 2011, a legislator for the conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Arifinto, was photographed, also from above, watching porn on his tablet during a session of the DPR.
Ironically, PKS was one of driving forces behind Indonesia's draconian 2008 Pornography Law, yet Arifinto escaped charges but later quit the DPR in disgrace. Arifinto died in 2016.