Anatomy

Being critical is one of the qualities of the consciousness. I believe consciousness is born out of experience, education, cultural and traditional forming. People are raised in an environment made of rules, that is tradition, culture, and norms. As they grow up, experiences from education, trainings and daily interactions with others will shape the way they think, the way they opinionate, the way they judge. Information provided by the media are also experiences that will determine their consciousness. Once in a while they challenge and questions their routines, their norms, and the system that controls their daily life – sometimes self-engaged in an intellectual argument. So when does the consciousness begin to question and oppose, instead of conforming? How does this nature or choice come about?

I’d like to argue this question from a vantage point of an old story. I’d like to start with the story of a young prince Siddhartha Gautama full of joy and spirit with his life behind closed walls. Behind this wall, all is sterile, pristine, and as we the readers are aware, was purposely structured to appear constant, painless, and immortal, as all the negative were relieved from Gautama’s view. As he grows the walls that confine him becomes a too familiar space, and he asks a request from his father to look beyond the boundaries of the wall. This is a symbolic act of being curious, an act of the subjective mind, and a quality of the consciousness. Here we see Siddhartha committing a conscious critic of his norm. The walled space becomes a too familiar situation – an upbeat, overly positive drama that the mind cannot accept as the only existing condition. We remember being confined in a crib, surrounded by such walls. Our mind cannot accept this and because we have no verbal skills to express our conscious assessment, we try to climb out. This is a phenomenon of the conscious.

As the story goes, the King grants his son’s wish, provided that the world outside is cleansed of all diseases and sensations of death. As Siddhartha is charioted out into the utopian kingdom, he notices an alien creature much like him but withered and decayed. He asks what the creature was and his most loyal subject answered that it was a man fading away from this life by age. Along his trip, Siddhartha would encounter two more images of the tragedies of man: sickness and death. Because of these images, Siddhartha opposes the norm and denounces his Eden. Later through many trials and temptations, Siddhartha became the Buddha or the enlightened one. Siddharta’s discovery are new exepriences that not just enrich his knowledge but further drives his consciousness to ask. And the accumulation of his discoveries, allow his liberated consciousness to pursue the critical path.

The visions of Siddhartha are experiences or sensations contrast to the situated environment purposely created to control his daily life. We recall the wall, the confine that challenges our consciousness’ will to absorb knowledge. It is perhaps nature’s program, the Homo sapiens’ instinct, a skill derived from past exercises that our ancestors imprinted in our genes. Or perhaps it is the way our brain was structured to deal with the nature of our surroundings, the way it perceives and absorbs information reciprocates it to provoke inquisition. I posit that the consciousness is an independent entity trapped in a physical form, it has will, and pronounce choice. Let’s assume that this is the first trigger of our curiosity to question. The second trigger, if indeed that consciousness is liberated, is the variety of situations and experiences, different or comparable to the norm we are used to. These conditions further provoke the conscious to question. When faced with an alien concept or experience, consciousness will raise a desire to know more information about the experience, therefore igniting question, or critique.

For example, when we are informed of a new fact, much different than what we were educated or raised to believe, we at least wonder what it is that is different. That act alone is a critical act of the conscious. Until more information surfaces, our conscious becomes more curious and critical. Opposition happens when the norm is challenged by the new experience and the conscious decides to embrace the new experience instead of the norm. The norm or routine is no longer valid as the main value or experience for the consciousness to adhere.

Siddhartha opposes his utopian society because it no longer makes sense to him: There must be “something” outside the wall. His consciousness demands it. The repetitive routine of his sterile life provokes his consciousness to ask: Is there more, is there anything else? Furthermore, people are raised by traditions brought upon cultural behaviors. At a certain age, one is exposed to experiences that are different than their traditions. Those experiences offer a new logic, a new rational that challenges one’s norm, perhaps because it is “attractive,” because it feels more “right” in a sense when compared to the comfort of our past experiences.

When Dell recalled 1.4 million Sony batteries, Dell’s stocks took a plunge. Dell received further blow by the announcement of Apple’s MacPro, a gargantuan 64 bit processing machine that out performs Dell’s mega PC towers and as well as underprice it. But this is far from Apple’s ambitions of being the David of Goliath. Well, the table has turned, for Apple now recalls 1.5 million laptop batteries, manufactured by none other, Sony. And as we speak, investors are selling Apple stocks, instead of acquiring more. But how does this affect Sony? Almost 3 million of their defected batteries are being recalled because of faulty wiring that may cause laptops to catch on fire, and image that certainly fuels one’s imagination, and in reality would only be discovered in books or movies. That constitutes hundreds of millions of dollars lost. Not to mention investor distrust. I view this as only the beginning, an accumulation of sequential disasters that targets the slow annihilation of Sony. Could this be a global conspiracy?Check your laptop batteries, you Compaq, HP, Zyrex, IBM, and those Quasi Chinese laptop owners. Even I jeer anxiously for signs of electrical malfunction or simply smoke, from my Apple iBook, in which this Weblog is being typed on.

So much fuss over a magazine. So much controversy over an artwork. So much agitation over a proposed bill.

This essay circulates around three key events: the Indonesian Playboy magazine’s ill fate after launching, the Pinkswing Park art installation by painter Agus Suwage and photographer Davy Linggar that enraged religious fanatics, and ultimately the debate on the anti pornography bill blueprint and statements made by the FPI – the Islamic Defender’s Front – as well as by the “dangdut” megastar and Muslim cleric, Rhoma Irama, and by his colleagues at the Indonesian Islamic Ulama Council, the MUI: that pornography must be outlawed from Indonesian society in order for the country to maintain and uphold its already degrading moral integrity, and to protect its women and children. (1)

I will not argue what is wrong and what is right. I believe that the discourse surrounding pornographic art and media, in this case, is far more complicated than the generalization that those media is degrading women or that it has the effects of demoralizing the Indonesian society. I believe that much of the fervor was accumulated, collectively ignited by past controversies; one was the erotic dance performance of the “dangdut” phenom, Inul Daratista in 2003. (2) And even far before Inul, when erotic magazines such as Popular, FHM, and tacky pornographic tabloids dealt with illegal sweepings by the FPI. (3) Or the government’s failure to curb prostitution, I argue that the overlooked forces behind and beyond the debated objects and the debaters themselves have propelled this animosity. Paternalism and moral concerns are just a mask for the conservatives in spinning the real issues. The first factor is the mass media’s role in amplifying, reproducing, and disseminating the object’s coverage. It is the culmination of accumulated coverages leading up to Playboy and Pinkswing Park as its zenith that have exploded this dispute over what’s right and wrong.

This ties into the second factor, globalization. Playboy magazine acts as an agent of globalization and modernization – the rival of Pan-Islamism, the concept that many Islamic conservatives have been trying to revive. (4) This is also a symptom of disjuncture between the “scapes” as posited by Arjun Appadurai, a friction between arising media technologies, dissemination of visualities, and spiritual ideologies. (5) I assume that there is a power struggle - between the status quo, Pan Islamism movement, and oppressed minorities - happening here in gaining control over foreign media, foreign ideologies, such as liberalism, democracy, freedom of expressions, and gender rights that may threaten or rupture the existing cultural codes that have rendered Indonesians dependant on the state for moral acknowledgment.

Ultimately all this has resulted in the anti pornography bill, not only championed but also sanctioned by the Islam conservatives. Implications from the bill, if passed, are damaging. First it would position paternalism, male dominance over women as a legalized culture. Second it would limit the rights of women, the queer, even as far as to control what they wear. Third, this bill will limit freedom of expression in media and the arts. This has sparked an intense national debate: what gives the government rights to control their citizen’s moral behavior? A question that can only derive from a modern epistemological view – a view frightening to the Islamic conservatives. (6)

Therefore, I posit that globalization is not only a threat to the status quo – the state and the national identity, but also that it is opening up possibilities for minority Indonesians (those who oppose the bill are considered minorities, but the term do suggest ethnic and religious implications) to speak out for the first time on a bigger platform. The mass media’s role in disseminating information has helped in supporting this balance of dialog between the conservatives, the fanatics, and the liberals. It even has taken the subject into a global debate, drawing international support and attention. The accumulated reaction has pressured the cessation of passing the bill, for now.

Ngebor Inul, Lipstick Magazine: Celebrating the Flesh

Indonesian depictions of the flesh, celebration of the body image is an ancient culture derived from the “primitive” times preceding the first major religion that reached Indonesia, Buddhism and Hinduism. Even then, synthesized with the teachings of tantric Buddhism it is freely portrayed in temples as an educational tool for maintaining the people’s moral spirituality. (7) However, after the rise of Islam, sex has been regarded as a private, secret and often taboo subject. Many Hindu temples in Java has been desecrated or covered up to hide away the erotic depictions. This of course does not diminish aggressive sexual behaviors or sex crimes against women and young men, although very suppressed and hidden from the public eye. The concealment of sexual acts in history has positioned the “national culture” as immaculate.

Soekarno (term of office 1945-1965), the first president of Indonesia is known for his womanizing behaviors and pushed for the modernization of the nation. His endorsement over the Pancasila – the national five principles that encourages plurality and social justice, diminishes the Pan Islamic principles of administering an Islamic nation encouraged by the Islamic conservatives at the time. The mass media at the time was highly proliferated too, used mostly as a tool to promote nationalism, propaganda necessary to unite the nation, and maintain state stability. As listening to the radio became a social activity (because many people were illiterate at the time), the people grew aware of the idea of a nation and the sovereignty of a state. I found this process similar to that happening in Belize, when watching television and the discourse that surrounds the information gathered from watching it transforms the ideas of the nation (Wilk 1993, 1994). (8)

When the government of Soeharto (the New Order) replaced Soekarno, due to his leanings with communism, his government eradicated many progressive accomplishments. He nurtured subtle discrimination, and obsessively managed the mass media for reasons of control. The New order centralized the mass media and established a national censor bureau, transforming the “modernized” state into an authoritarian condition. Many liberal and reactionary movements were oppressed, even including the Islamic radicals. However, the government groomed the Islamic Ulama Council – MUI, as a moral front to his corrupt governance. Here the distribution of media is controlled, moralized and carefully filtered, therefore homogenizing. Attempts by the media to test the government’s grip have resulted in the publication’s shut down.

Soeharto resigned in 1998, leaving the nation in disarray, and the government lost its grip on the mass media. Post dictatorship Indonesia witnessed the most progressive proliferation of mass media and democratization of politics, economies, as well as the liberalization of ideas. It also gave back legitimacy to the suppressed Islamic conservatives.

Jumping ahead four years to 2002, the proliferation of mass media included those of male entertainment magazines such as Popular and tabloid style erotic magazines such as Lipstick, Lampu Merah (Red Light), and many more. The magazines are sold in the open with no age limit for purchase. The nation has just recovered from Indonesia’s fourth president, Abdulrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), a blind prophetic cleric. (9) He was ousted from his presidency after failing to gain national support for his government. During Gus Dur’s presidency, his ties with the Nahdatul Ulama, an East Javanese Muslim organization gave the MUI wind in assuming much spiritual leadership and moral control. Fearing further widespread development of pornographic materials among the public, they issued a religious decree, a “fatwa,” against pornography. (10) The “fatwa” gave reason for the FPI, the Muslim’s moral watchdog, to conduct public sweepings of newsstands in several cities around Java. Debate over freedom of expression against the rights to regulate moral conduct carried on intensely till the present.

In 2003, touring around the Javanese island, Inul Daratista gained popularity from her signature “Ngebor” dance, a sensual gyrating drilling movement of her posterior. The erotic dance of “dangdut” vocal performance is nothing new, its roots originating in Indian influenced dances, and the sexually charged Sundanese “Jaipong.” This type of erotic entertainment is hidden from the public eye because of its obscure patronage in rural areas, among the farmers and villagers, deemed backward and disconnected from modernity by urbanites. However when an audience videotaped her performance, reproduced, and marketed it to the masses in Video Disc Format (VCD), she automatically gained national attention, plus a record deal. Many urbanites finally viewed the erotic “ngebor” of Inul on national television and fell in love with her. The MUI, however, issued a statement barring the selling and purchase or her video, also banning public viewing of Inul’s concerts. The statements were largely ignored, defying the Muslim clerics decree for the first time, and Inul gained further popularity among the rural civilians and urbanites, as well as public intellectuals who sympathized her plight, including former Indonesian president Gus Dur. Acting out as the loyal moral watchdogs, the FPI demonstrated against Inul and even threatened to sack her concerts. Again the public defied the FPI and MUI.

Owning or having to have watched these media exposures of Inul, in my view gives a sense of agency among people, many of whom are wary of the MUI’s ridiculous decree and moral hypocrisy. It is public knowledge that the MUI became the New Order’s justification for corruption, spinning the concept of “fatwa” and moral virtues while the government suppressed the people. With the proliferation of television broadcasts of foreign (mostly American) and occasional accidents of the censor bureau missing an edit of Baywatch, or racy scenes in foreign TV shows, or the bombardment of Inul video music clips on TV, the nation is sensing democratization around most living dimensions. I am thinking of a similar situation in the post-Mao China and how the mass media is rupturing the idea of a nation bounded by boundaries, relating to other Chinese in other nations (Yang 1994). (11) What about the sense of freedom in owning a controversial or foreign media, or even the act of viewing it together? In the case of the Indonesian public, this is a threat to the idea of Pan-Islamism that the MUI is trying to revive, and a struggle for them that will culminate after two events – Playboy Magazine and Pinkswing Park, and their ultimate spin in response, the anti pornography bill proposal.

Pinkswing Park, Playboy and Anti pornography: Swinging the Mass Media, Wrapping it in Globalization

Anjasmara and Isabel Yahya had no clue what to expect from modeling for Agus Suwage and Davy Linggar’s art installation piece for the CP Bienalle in Jakarta, September 2005. Anjasmara is a model and television actor, well known for his good looks, and comic bravery. Isabel is a not as popular as Anjasmara, but well known in the modeling circuit for her pleasant elegance and exotic profile. Well, they are both naked, frolicking around in the art piece, as composed by photographer Davy Linggar in a lush monochromatic “Garden of Eden.” Them being pink and nude, except for the white dots that barely covers their private parts. The piece was part of a bi-annual art show sponsored by the CP art foundation, held in the national gallery space, open for public consumption. I believe that without Anjasmara or Isabel modeling, none of this controversy over what art should and should not portray would arise. I argue that without the exposure of the mass media over these art pieces, none of the FPI demonstration and court settlements would have happened.

Agus Suwage has been making social-realistic arts for decades, many of them poking fun at the irony of Indonesian society, many of them portraying nudity and purposely eroticizing the social realities of Indonesia. This piece, viewed by many critics is just another Agus Suwage piece. The bomb that hit the fan was that Anjasmara, the mega popular soap star modeled for the piece. And accompanying him was a luscious desirable model, Isabel Yahya. The fact that they are frolicking around naked and being pink and all is not something new. But when TV stations, mainly those from gossip shows came barging in the gallery and airing the art piece, only a day after that the FPI threatened to shut the exhibition down, if the piece was not removed from the show. The curator of the show, Jim Supangkat defied the threat. The FPI reacted with another threat of violence if the gallery did not concede. The art piece was finally removed. But that was not the end of it. Using the MUI’s “fatwa” against pornography, the FPI sued Anjasmara, Isable Yahya, Agus Suwage, and Davy Linggar, even forcing them to apologize to the public for their “misconduct” of displaying indecency. The arts world in Indonesia was furious, reacting by releasing counter arguments in newspapers and issuing a manifesto in response to the allegations. (12) Then, comes Playboy magazine.

Stealth apparently was not in Playboy’s marketing strategy. The FPI watchdogs and the MUI, both in unison are calling for Islamic unity in fighting against moral degradation. In the last three years, several racy magazines are being published freely: FHM, Male Emporium, EHM, and many more spin offs. Also within the last four years, there have been a revival of Islam fundamentalism, arising from tech-smart clerics, utilizing popular media such as regular TV broadcasts, newspaper columns, websites, blogs, CD-ROMS, DVDs, VCDs, Audio books, etc., encompassing the economic availability and potentiality of self publishing. (13) They preach that the way to arise from the economic crises that have debilitated Indonesia since 1997 is to return to Islam. Gaining sympathy, they arose to celebrity status; some even married rmodels and actresses.

Referring Playboy, the Islamic conservatives were furious and they capitalized on the revival of Islam fundamentalism, easily forming an alliance with these celebrity clerics, calling out for a new bill against pornography and what they term as “pornoaksi,” to define public expressions that emanate eroticism. This term is ambiguously defined and dangerous because it could infringe civil rights and ethnic traditions that are not bound by Islamic laws. (14) The Islamic conservatives have little care for the “minorities,” harshly stating that the explicit behaviors that celebrate the flesh posed by the minorities should be encased in a museum display, instead of being exposed to the public. The defiance of the Muslim conservatives tactically mask their activism under positions of purity, moral righteousness, and more importantly exploiting the popularity of these celebrity clerics.

Playboy magazine came at a peculiar time in the Indonesian mass media situation. I argue that their objective was pure capital, piggyback riding on the popularity of the already widely disseminated erotic media such as FHM or Popular magazine. They dove in without fear of censorship, relying on the success of their predecessors. But now, the utilization of mass media by the Islamic conservatives is stronger. Most of the public is now in sympathy with the plight of Muslim conservatives trying to dig up this nation from moral decay. In responding to the conservative’s protest, Playboy magazine cleverly took advantage on their connections and networks within the popular mass media, drawing sympathy from the public intellectuals, and even bringing Gus Dur, once again, as an ally to their plight. They chose to connect with the art worlds and formed key relationships within the Islamic Liberals.

Clearly the disjuncture between scapes within the national realm creates friction against each other (Appadurai 1996). There are struggles to gain control of those scapes. The proliferation of the mass media both obtained by the Islamic conservatives as well as the liberals, representing struggles within the mediascape, creating frictions against the scape of ideologies, a struggle between capitalism/democracy/globalization and Islam fundamentalism/Pan-Islamism. And another friction between the scape of economy, the resistance and the permission of global trade, free flow capitalism as displayed by Playboy and FHM. I argue that all these friction of scapes, the disjunctures between, the intertwining of, are the process of Indonesia adjusting to globalization. And for the culprits, the key to victory lies in the control of the mass media.

The Indonesian arts as actors within the mediascape have not dealt with the situation tactically. They speak in their own language, disconnected from the public digestion. This is crucially erroneous; for they need the public support for their plight, not alienate them in their jargon. The arts also need to embrace the wider popular media and not reserve to ones that are accessible to the tech savvy such as blogs and webs. Much of this is due to their concept of autonomy and traumatic experience of interacting with the public and politics of the past (under the New order regime, many arts movements have been oppressed violently).

Within the disjuncture of scapes in the national borders of Indonesia, there are key factors abroad that may influence the outcome of these frictions. The Playboy conglomeration as well as the proliferated mass media belongs to a global world, rather lying within a distinct political geography. The problem of Playboy’s plight has graced international newspapers, and even brought its discourses into foreign classrooms. Indeed the media technologies play a great role in this, but it raises questions to the legitimacy of national integrity and the myth of sovereignty. If the bill is ratified, would the global react. Or would immense pressure from globalization already operating in delaying ratification?

I care not to mention the state’s role here, meaning the government, because the actors and their utility of proliferating mass media and globalization dwarf their role in all this controversy. But I associate the emergence of Pan-Islamism within the Islamic conservatives with the state. They have an implicit alliance that ties with the current president Jusuf Kalla and the Department of Religious Affairs. Their role perhaps lies greatly in pushing the ratification of the anti pornography and “pornoaksi” bill. I’ll not go in too much details of the proposed bill because it is clear from many discourses surrounding it that the implications are damaging, mostly to women and minority ethnic groups. (15)

As Kofi Annan mentioned in his speech, that adapting globalization requires the reinforcement of the state (Annan 2002). (16) He fears the disappearance of nationalism, as a collective identity among borders, and also the only order that would establish a sovereign state. With the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the current president, mainly staying away from the MUI affairs, including the proposed anti pornography bill, it is no wonder that the discourse has demolished the idea of the state, but at the same time shifting it to a more dangerous ideology, that of Pan-Islamism. If the state wants to regain control, or governance it must be strict to enforce plurality, once embraced and successfully campaigned by Soekarno, not watch idly as the MUI garner Islamic consensus as national consensus. The government must also embrace the mass media, create tactics of its own, as national interest, not to manipulate it as it once did in the New order regime, but to utilize it. The government must dive into the discourse, enriching the frictions among scapes, perhaps mediating it. In power relations perhaps it is too dangerous to consider that such a powerful body be involved, but it would be crippling for the nation for it to stay away.

Ultimately, the important point that I argue is that the discourse between Playboy, Pinkswing Park, and the anti pornography bill is beyond matters of morality. In the case of Indonesia it’s about the struggle for mass media control within the struggle against globalization. Pornography began as a reactionary media against politics but in the case of Indonesia I posit it as a vehicle of politics for national control. Perhaps that is why Playboy magazine, despite all threats, put up a long stand off. Some of the editorial staff I know belonged to several youth culture groups in Bandung, and have embraced anti-establishment politics. Perhaps they are using Playboy as a symbol or rather vehicle for fighting against the regression toward a Pan-Islamic state. The threat to the status quo of the rise of Islam fundamentalism will always be democracy, and the ideologies of the West. For the Islamic conservatives that embrace Pan-Islamism, it will always be a fight between Islam and the others. Although not all negative, the positive is being absorbed by the enlightened public, ameliorated by the proliferation of mass media and globalization, a force so strong, it takes several (the state/Islam conservatives and their watchdogs) to severely chastise it in order to subdue it.

The recent mass demonstration against the anti pornography bill rallied by supporters of the freedom of expression and women’s and minority rights is an example of agency among minorities against this conservative paternalism. Among demonstrators are soap celebrities, singers and dangdut artists such as Inul Daratista. (17) More reactions come in the form of petitions, already signed by hundreds of thousands, and statements made by Gus Dur, a respected Muslim cleric ridiculing Islam itself by announcing the several entries in the Al Quran pornographic. For minorities, whose freedom and rights are threatened by the majority, who in this instance is represented by Islam conservatives and radicals, a union needs to be formed. There is already a vessel where the same ideas meet in the form of mass media and globalization, which could prove as lethal weapons if further elaborated regionally. The washing machine of disjuncture between scapes is spinning madly.

References
1. “Dangdut” is a form of Indonesian popular folk music adapting tunes and beats from Malay, Arabic, and Indian influences. On a concise article, look up the world wide web: “Dangdut.” In Wikipedia. April 1, 2006. . Read article on Rhoma Irama in the world wide web: “Rhoma Irama.” In Wikipedia, March 22, 2006. . For more information on the MUI, read the journal abstract available from the world wide web: “Behind the Scenes: Fatwas of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (1975-1998).” Journal of Islamic Studies. Volume 15, number 2, Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. . The MUI’s statement is surmised from various articles, but take a look at one of my favorite, from an online blog: Patung (pseudonym). “Porn Wars.” Indonesia Matters. March 13, 2006. . On Pinkswing Park, read the article from the Jakarta Post in the world wide web by Khalik, Abdul. “Art on trial as obscenity furor heats up.” The Jakarta Post. February 3, 2006. .
2. Check out an article on Inul Daratista by Time Asia on the world wide web. Walsh, Brian. “Inul’s Rules.” Time Asia. March 24, 2003. .
3. Read about the FPI’s illegal sweepings in Liberal Islam Network’s homepage on the world wide web, especially the article by Christanty, Linda. “Is There a Rainbow in Islam?” Islam Liberal Network. July 30, 2003. .
4. Pan-Islamism is also known as Ummah. Read more on the world wide web. “Ummah.” Wikipedia. April 12, 2006. .
5. Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” The Globalization Reader. 2004: 100-108. Blackwell Publishers, 2003.
6. By Islamic conservative, I mean people that embrace Islam with a conservative understanding of it, living lifestrictly adhering by a firm interpretation of Islamic Shariah – or by Islamic law. They do not allow the laws of the state govern their lifestyle and even try to impose Shariah above state laws.
7. Pangkahila, Wimpie. “Indonesia (Republik Indonesia): National and Urban Perspectives.” The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. .
8. Read Wilk, Richard R. “Television and the Imaginary in Belize.” In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrains. London: University of California Press, 2002. 174.
9. Look up the world wide web. “Abdurrahman Wahid.” Wikipedia. March 31, 2006. .
10. In Islam, the council of clerics or Ulama has the right to issue religious decrees deciding what is sinful, what is right, and what is forbidden. Read more about it in the world wide web at Wikipedia’s page. “Fatwa” Wikipedia. April 22, 2006. .
11. Read Yang, Mayfair Mei-Hui. “Mass Media and Subjectivity in Shang Hai.” In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrains. London: University of California Press, 2002. 174.
12. You can read both the arts world’s view on Pinkswing Park and the Art Manifesto responding to the controversy at the Indonesian Arts Community for Civil Liberties website/blog on the world wide web. Pinkswing (pseudonym). “PINKSWING PARK Against Rightists Allegations (+Manifesto).” Indonesian Arts Community for Civil Liberties. February 26, 2006. .
13. Read Time Asia’s article on AA Gym, a celebrity cleric, available on Time’s website. Elegant, Simon and Jason Tedjasukmana. “Holy Man: Indonesia’s hottest Muslim preaches a slick mix of piety and prosperity.” In Time Asia. November 4, 2002. .
14. Read the Balinese minorities’ reaction to the proposed bill in the Jakarta Post online. Juniartha, I Wayan. “Balinese reiterate opposition to pornography bill.” The Jakarta Post. March 16, 2006. .
15. Read more about the discourse surrounding the anti pornograhy bill in the Jakarta Post online. Hummel, Daniel. “Implications of pornography bill and Islamic law.” The Jakarta Post. March 25, 2006. .
16. Read Annan, Kofi. “The Role of the State in the Age of Globalisation.” The Globalization Reader. 2004: 240-243. Blackwell Publishers, 2003.
17. Taken from the Wahid Institute, Abdurrahman Wahid’s foundation for Plurality. Masyarakat Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. “Tolak Pornografi, Tolak Juga RUU Porno.” The Wahid Institute. March 22, 2006. .

Visual culture is a relatively new field in the process of identifying itself, and as a growing discipline it is certainly exciting to experience first hand its constant transformations and refinements. This field is also a rare and potential dimension to be explored, distinctly in Indonesia, which is a visually engaging culture. Indonesians dwell on the visual, culturally and socially, propagated mostly by tradition, dominant cultural custom, hegemonic regimes, and in recent decade by globalization, fueled by the information technology revolution, by the media, and by visual communication. Therefore, this makes the disembodied image palpable and vital to the foundations of traditional and contemporary Indonesian lifestyle. This in turn creates many disparities, debate, and polarity between globalization and conservative traditionalism, between the West and the Others, or between democracy and religious fundamentalism. These disjunctures project an increasing debate in the plural Indonesian contemporary culture, which seems to reject the tangents from the polar discourse, evident mostly in the West. I find this thesis fascinating to represent, because of my practical and intellectual background, and as an Indonesian aware of its societal position.

I am reminded over and over again at how a fortunate position I am in this world. In these reflective moments, when one are exposed to the tragedies of the world and its injustices, the systematic genocides, cruel atrocities purposely advocated by hegemony, abducting the human rights even to its essential priviliges; to breathe and to live, the cruelties, the grizzly accounts, the absence of decency and compassion, the void of humanity, all this sadness, all this overwhelming accounts of travesties seem to tell me that the world, this supposed reality, this waking moment is a bleak and depressing world. As a discerning individual I can easily succumb to the bombardment of visual cruelties and factual events presented before, feel sad, feel despair, feel heavily burdened to question my humanity. But I choose not to. In the darkest tunnel, there will always be a light at the end. The logical thing to do would to look for it, and so we must. Despair isn’t an option, it is exactly the attitude we must abolish for it will drag us into abyss. Pick ourselves up and look for that light. Do what we must to search for it. For all the efforts will triumph a reward. And if in the end you still cannot find it, do not doubt that it isn’t there. Keep your faith and keep searching. You can easily start by looking into your own heart. For often overlooked, it is there, already a light, already an answer, already the hope of our humanity.

Do you believe in foresight?

I do. Foresight is the ablity to see or recognize an event before it actually happens. Have we ever thought that maybe we all have this ability? That actually the event foreseen is actually the Real or the Truth? But why is it so difficult or illogical or unnatural to foresee the future? I assume that we all have the ability but many of us lost the skill as we grew into maturity. I believe that many of us lost this “skill” because through maturation we refuse to acknowledge or misrecognize the reality provided by our surroundings. It is signals given by our environment, entities that confirm our existence, but which we neglect or purposely repel their communication through repeated signals, because we are infatuated and engrossed with our Self. It is our failure to perceive, or receive our existence in others so that we are negated of this particular gift. Therefore our psyche must go through the process of misrecognition to be able to see the Truth.

If I am not making sense, then how do we explain Love at First Sight? How do we have this funny feeling that the person you meet and see for the very first time will be your partner for life. Now, many of you feel that Love is a romantic notion campaigned by Hollywood, initially indoctrinated by bards to support the royalty’s image of sanctity and the sacredness of Christianity. But I believe that this very romantic notion has aculturated deeply and even assimilated into our psyche to deserve a mere primordial explanation.

I am an advocate of Love because I feel it so. I can foresee my future. I have met my soulmate and I know for certain that my future is with this person. I can’t afford misrecognitions for the truth to arise. I have seen the truth and I will fight to keep it Real for it determines my existence and purpose in this very short life.

So I learned in class today, as we were discussing Lacan, as cited by Slavoj Zizek through an example in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, that to grasp Truth in a psychoanalitical (Lacan) way is to misrecognize it.

At their first encounter, Darcy and Elizabeth falls in love, but because of their difference in social status and class they failed to recognize each’s true intentions. Because of Darcy’s pride, he regards his affection unworthy, thus he appears to dismiss her world and expects Elizabeth to honorably accept his proposal. Her prejudice casts him as a vulgar, high class arrogant and vain. Therefore she refuses his proposal. Both neglected or misinterpreted or read an inverse message from each other. After their break up, adventures of coincidences reveal their true feelings of love as it appears to both characters. Darcy finally recognizes Elizabeth is his sensitive and tender nature, as he is her dignity and wit.

Indifferent to Lacan’s concept of love, it is my belief the process of uncovering the truth, which will ultimately draw to love, does go through a process of misrecognitions. In part, for it is a process, an experience that will draw strength to future relations with the supposed “loved” partner. Although one does not have to go through the rigorous misadventures of Darcy and Elizabeth, misrecognition can be noticed through idealistic first impressions of our spouse. If we recall they are misrecognitions in the form of denials, doubts, resistance, anxiety, ignorance, and other negative responses of our spouse. This process is curiously certain and unavoidable. It has manifested or developed through stages in our formalization of the self.

So how do we deal with this uneasy misrecognitions? There is no empirical solution but metaphysical, in fact it may transcend to holistic methods. I propose to simply believe and have faith. Belief is built upon lessons from our growing environment, society and community, and pedadogy. Where as faith is drawn upon a collection of experiences that we accept as foundations to alleviate the self, therefore creating a feeling of confidence. Those two, I believe, are essential in relieving the feeling of pain or disappointment from misrecognition.

Another way would be to “be tough.” Ignore the pains and seek the truth, or wait and live our routinity as the truth reveals itself in due time. The truth, which we initially fail to recognize will ultimately disclose itself, as it has to me and my spouse, which lead to optimistic jubilances of love. Our story of course is different and unique, as many other people are, and dissimilar in the range of the time to unveil this truth. I am fortunate and perhaps blessed to have a insignificant amount of time in this process.

So, bear with it and sweat it out. Let love surface.

The very thought of our purpose in life abruptly shatters our concentration at times. It is at this point we ultimately question our goals, our achievements, our motives to exist and strive for life in this short amount of time we have. Then in the speed of light all our sentimental memories grace our thought. Again we question what we lack in those memories, or are they just trivial remembrances, unworthy of consideration, or even not notable to keep as nostalgia. How about the memories that matters? Are they memories or experiences worth holding on to? Then we move to regrets. Have we done something in the past that we are repentant to… Or have we completely forgiven ourself or others for doing something to us? Do we wish that we can do it all over again? If we get a second chance what will we do? More and more questions follow.

Like all cognitive beings, our mind dwell in three matrices of time; the past, the present, and the future. In this short journey through life, we neglect to live in the now. We emphasize on the past and future. We regret and set targets, but we often forget what to do this instant that we breathe.

O, it’s just me questioning of everything that popped somewhen.

All I can think of right now is a person I hold dear to some 15 thousand kilometers away.

9817 miles (15800 km / 8531 nautical miles) is our physical boundary.

0 is our existing boundary.

Love folds space and time into infinitesimal properties beyond our comprehension, beyond logic or reason, an assumption many to believe holistic and mystic in nature. There are no mathematical equation or scientific formula, just a primordial instinct passed from eons of generations, from a mutation of the genes, sparked by undefinable purpose. Does a certain fractal prescription implicitly explain chaos, thus disclose the paradox of nature altogether? Does it matter that we unveil this mystery?

0 is our existing boundary, our love ad infinitum.

My journey to find love ends here. I have found it. Another journey begins to nurture it. It will grow beautifully. I know it. I will eternally be hers, and she be mine. Our bond is stronger than anything. It will conquer all.