Ezra Sihite & Dessy Sagita – A barrage of criticism and scorn continue to assail the president's recent establishment of an anti-pornography task force, with many saying on Wednesday that the government had lost sight of its priorities.
Pramono Anung, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said the task force's formation did not have any bearing on essential matters and that the focus of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration should be on corruption eradication, poverty reduction and the fight against drugs.
"It could be that after a while, there will be a task force on the prevention of falling in love," joked Pramono, a member of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
He said other task forces that had recently been set up appeared unable to improve the problems they were charged with tackling. "The government should have priorities. Pornography should not have been a first priority," Pramono said.
The difficulty of defining pornography in any reasonable manner and the already enacted anti-pornography law were two more reasons for the government to show restraint, he added.
Criticism of the initiative has not been limited to opposition political parties.
"The forming of the anti-pornography task force is not needed and not important because there are many other societal problems that need to be accorded more serious attention, such as corruption prevention, the empowerment of people in villages and isolated areas, poverty eradication, poor nutrition, [and] social conflicts," the Indonesian Coalition of Women said in a statement.
It said that despite the inclusion of 13 ministers and several other functionaries, the task force would not be able to work effectively because the law on which it would base its work was controversial and had, from the beginning, been rejected by many.
The coalition also said the task force was a waste of resources because the officials involved were set to receive additional allowances on top of their already high salaries.
Taufik Kiemas, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), said there were too many task forces already and that efforts to fight pornography should be dealt by a minister, not a president.
"For me, I do not agree. Too many institutions [already] do not work," he said. According to Taufik, the establishment of the task force reflected a failure of the concerned ministers to fulfill their duties.
Arimbi Heroeputri, a member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), has already spoken out against the president's new task force as a reflection of misplaced priorities.
"We appreciate the good intention of the president and the establishment of the task force is within the authority of the president, but it seems that this is does not belong on the list of priorities for the present," Arimbi said.