Marcel Thee – The latest national sex video scandal involves a clip of Iwan Fajarudin, a National Mandate Party lawmaker from the Purworejo Legislative Council and a woman he claims is his wife. According to Iwan, the video was probably taken from his laptop, which he had recently sold.
A couple of days earlier, Twitter user @Fahri_Israel uploaded a video via his account, claiming it featured Anis Matta, a deputy House speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party.
Like all the other nationally produced sex clips making the rounds these last few years, these new videos are readily available for public viewing due to the increasing prevalence of mobile phones and the Internet. Voyeurs trade grainy video files over the Internet on a daily basis like they are going out of style (which, ironically, they are never going to do).
Certainly, the tapes do not prove people are having more sex, there's just more cellphone footage of it to go around.
The added irony here is that the reactions to these various sex tapes – often accused of being morally corrosive, or providing cinematic proof of a corrupted youth – showcase the worst of the country's increasing lack of focus on what constitutes real moral values.
The story always seems to go the same way: the wronged receives an overdose of uneducated condemnation, while the true perpetrators receive a slap on the wrist and a hidden pat on the back from voyeurs and a gossip-show-obsessed public.
Here is a short list of the country's most publicized sex videos and the typically nationalistic brouhaha that surrounded each one. Keep in mind that many "facts" are in truth alleged rumors stirred up by the condemning public.
If anything, sex video scandals are always accompanied by a good dose of hypocrisy. Be forewarned.
Peterporn (2010)
By now, everybody is familiar with the story. Nazril "Ariel" Irham, the frontman of the successful pop band Peterpan, left private files at a recording studio and someone else posted them on the Internet. Along with the women who allegedly appeared in the videos, Ariel was then dragged through the courts and ended up getting jail time. He became the country's villain and was blamed for devaluing the morals of Indonesia's youth who, apparently, would not have had any interest in sex otherwise.
Maria Eva and the House of Representatives guy (2006)
This sex tape is almost comical in its cringe-worthy bedside banter. Here we have a former Golkar Party lawmaker begging his female companion to turn off her cellphone camera and just get down to business. Unfortunately, his equally shrewd paramour decided to keep a souvenir for future use.
Whatever the case may be, Mr. politics, a.k.a. Yahya Zaini, lost his spot at the House of Representatives, while Maria Eva, a dangdut singer, became a pseudo celebrity. She appeared on various talk shows and a few months ago gave some advice to Ariel's alleged sex tape co-star Luna Maya, saying that "Luna is not a smart woman" because "I only took my clothes off in the video, just for giggles. I did not commit adultery [on video]. That's why Luna is not smart."
Celebrity hidden cam (2003)
A slew of female celebs became unwillingly involved in the creation of this complete visual invasion of privacy. The video was allegedly shot by photographer Budi Han and his band of merry men, through a one-way mirror at a professional photo studio. Somehow, the private collection ended up on the Internet to the extreme wrath of the celebrities, including high-profile actresses and singers.
A few of the celebrities were involved in highly publicized press conferences demanding that legal action be taken against Han and his men. This was perhaps one of the very few instances where the public and the law were behind the actual victims (perhaps because they were not actually enjoying themselves during the taping).
Han was prosecuted on three counts: the distribution of obscene material, defamation and the act of forcing another person to commit unpleasant acts. But of course, the tapes sold like hotcakes.
Alleged National Institute of Technology (ITENAS) sex tape (2001)
Mostly known under its hyper-romantic title "Bandung Lautan Asmara" ("Bandung Sea of Passion"), this is the sex video that opened the floodgates.
Leaked to the adoring and judgmental public in 2001, during the era of dial-up Internet connection, the video allegedly starred two university students from different colleges in Bandung.
Like most other well-known sex tapes in the country, the video was leaked by a third party. The 20-year-old male in the clip wanted to burn a copy of the private video for his girlfriend – the film's 19-year-old female participant – to celebrate their anniversary. He did this by going to a video-transfer service that ended up spreading copies of the video to the public.
What happened next is unclear, but rumors suggested that both participants were kicked out of their respective universities.
The male was wearing a sports jersey bearing the university's name – from which the title took its name – and the university took that as an insult.
While the person who leaked the video was eventually detained, both video participants were ostracized by the public and had to endure legal questioning by authorities, who even 10-plus years ago were eager to slap the derisory allegation of self-distribution for reasons that included an eagerness to become instant celebrities.
Other miscellaneous private sex videos on the internet (2000-present)
From alleged videotaped rapes and other forms of sexual harassment in provincial towns to boyfriend "revenge" videos and hidden camera footage, the amount of amateur sex-related video material from Indonesia on the Internet is endless.
Reports of the victims in the videos being handed the justice they deserve are rare. Instead of a thorough investigation of the sexual assaults of everyday citizens on the videos, it seems the attention has been given to celebrities who have had their private videos stolen, leaving our national moral values somewhat out of focus.