Arienta Primanita, Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has formed a task force to implement the country's controversial Anti-Pornography Law, prompting an opposition lawmaker to suggest he is seeking to distract from growing anxiety over fuel price increases.
"The task force will work under the president and be responsible to the president and will serve as a coordinating institution, which will coordinate efforts to curb and handle pornography," the Cabinet Secretariat said on its Web site.
The body will also monitor the implementation of the law and develop education and cooperation in fighting pornography. The task force, formed by a presidential regulation on March 2, was revealed this week.
The 2008 pornography law bans "pictures, sketches, photos, writing, voice, sound, moving picture, animation, cartoons, conversation, gestures, or other communications shown in public with salacious content or sexual exploitation that violate the moral values of society."
Offenders face up to 15 years imprisonment. The maximum penalty for lending or downloading pornographic material is four years in jail or a Rp 2 billion ($218,000) fine.
On the task force, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali will serve as executive chairman and Agung Laksono, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, will act as chair.
Most members serve in the Cabinet, but the National Police chief, the Attorney General, the head of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and the head of the Film Censorship Board (LSF) were also appointed.
The organization will oversee the activities of local anti-pornography branch offices at the provincial and district levels.
Mahfudz Siddiq, the chairman of House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees home affairs, deemed the establishment of the task force a good thing but pointed out it could only make recommendation to the president and had no authority to define or create policies.
"A task force would only be effective if three requirements are met," Mahfudz said on Tuesday. He cited them as the ability to produce policies, that it is consistent with the law and that it steadfastly upholds the law.
Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the task force would have a five-year tenure and annually report to the president. It is the latest in a series of institutions formed by the president. Others include the Judicial Mafia Eradication task force and the Committee on the National Economy.
Eva Kusuma Sundari, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), suspected that there was a link between the task force's formation and the upcoming planned fuel price increase in April.
She speculated that the team, which she said was a low priority for the government, was formed to please the Muslim lobby so that there would be less resistance to the price hike.
"The president should better concentrate on improving transparency and accountability so that the ethics of public policies are really targeted on the fulfilment of the people's fundamental rights, including on security," Eva said. But Agung denied the accusation, saying "this is not a effort to divert issues."
Arimbi Heroepoetri, a commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said the task force showed the president's misplaced priorities. Yudhoyono should focus on women's protection, she said She expressed concern that the pornography law was open to multiple interpretations and double standards.