Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the establishment of an antipornography task force on Tuesday, a move that critics pilloried as poor prioritization in a nation plagued with problems.
The Task Force for the Management and Prevention of Pornography, set up to implement the 2008 Pornography Law, was given a mandate to curb the distribution of pornography by presidential regulation as of March 2, the President said.
Yudhoyono appointed Coordinating People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono to lead the task force, while tapping Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali to run the body on a daily basis.
Agung was optimistic. "I hope that there will be no more pornographic material circulating in the country. For this reason, preventive measures are indeed important," Agung told reporters after the announcement.
However, a senior Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) member was quick to denounce the task force, saying that Yudhoyono had lost sight of the pressing problems plaguing the nation.
"The [pornography] task force is unnecessary. There are more important problems that the government should pay attention to, such as the need to stamp out corruption," PDI-P member and House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said.
Pramono said that other than wasting resources, the task force might be seen as a ploy to divert public attention from the government's planned fuel-price hike scheduled to come into effect on April 1.
Separately, Puan Maharani, the PDI-P's leader in the House, said that the task force would be ineffective. "We don't need to add one more useless task force."
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Mahfudz Siddiq, the chairman of House Commission I overseeing defense, agreed with Pramono and Puan, expressing concern that the administration was lighting false fires.
"We hope that this is not merely a tool to distract the public's attention from objecting to the planned fuel price hike. The President and members of the task force must prove that their intentions are sincere by, for instance, curbing the downloading of pornographic content nationwide," Mahfudz said.
He also challenged the task force to remove Indonesia from the list of pornography-crazed countries. According to a survey released by Google in February, Indonesia leads the world in visiting pornographic sites, outdoing China and Turkey.
"Let's see if the task force can remove Indonesia from the top of the list. This should be the standard by which the task force should be judged," he said.
Meanwhile, Andy Yentriyani from the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said she doubted that the task force could reduce pornography use in the long run. "Yudhoyono has set up too many task forces already, but we have seen little progress in the areas that they have been assigned to deal with," Andy said.
Late last year, Yudhoyono decided not to extend the term for the ad hoc Presidential Judicial Mafia Task Force, declining to provide a specific reason.
That task force was considered a success story for advocating for a defenseless worker who was framed by the police in a case allegedly initiated by a powerful business empire and for highlighting tax fraud allegedly committed by companies linked to Golkar Party chairman Aburizal "Ical" Bakrie.
Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam said in a statement that the formation of the task force was mandated by the Pornography Law and was legally based on a presidential regulation signed by Yudhoyono on March 2. (sat)