When piety is not the motive . . . what is?

On September 27, 2014, the Aceh provincial parliament approved the Principles of the Islamic Bylaw and the Islamic criminal code (Qanun Jinayah), which create new discriminatory offenses that do not exist in the Indonesian national criminal code (Hukum Pidana). The bylaws extend Sharia, or Islamic law, to non-Muslims, which criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts as well as all zina (sexual relations outside of marriage). The criminal code permits as punishment up to 100 lashes and up to 100 months in prison for consensual same-sex sex acts, while zina violations carry a penalty of 100 lashes. http://www.acehmail.com/2014/10/minorities-feel-threatened-with-indonesias-aceh-province-implementing-sharia/

I was searching for articles commenting on whether Joko Widodo, who assumes the presidency on October 20, is expected to do anything to rein in the Sharia law hysteria that now engulfs Aceh—and seems to be popular with no one except “the parliament,” whose members are rarely listed anywhere (Rami Sulaiman and Partai Aceh Spokesman Muhammas Harun being the exceptions). Interviews with Aceh citizens indicate that this “crackdown” does nothing but ruin business, restrict freedom of movement, and is a general pain in the ass to normal folks who just want to get on with some sort of semblance of normal daily life.

At the same time (September 28), the national parliament (controlled by the party of everyone’s favorite war criminal Prabowo Subiato and other supporting parties) passed a bill scrapping direct elections for provincial governorships, regency heads and city mayors.  Now, leaders will be chosen by “regional councils.”  This is certainly an anti-Jokowi measure, and aims to re-centralize the government, but I wonder if a) Aceh has to play along, being “autonomous” and all, and b) would a gubernatorial appointment be any different than current guv Zaini Abdullah, a big proponent of the pervert police—and why wouldn’t he be?  Prabowo’s Gerindra party made his life very easy both during and before the campaign.  They whipped up caliphate fervor all over the province, tapping into the desperation of thousands of ex-GAM combatants who hadn’t received a dime in promised compensation after the 2005 peace accord, and who watched GAM leaders assume positions of power and leave them in the dust.   “Jakarta has done you wrong,” was the message to the disaffected (read: nearly everyone) in Aceh.  “They don’t care about you, they’ll never help you, they don’t even want you to be a Muslim anymore!  Well they can’t take that away from you—down with Jakarta, up with Prabowo, and if you elect me I’ll let you stone and behead whoever you want.”

No one had ever really thought about stoning and beheading before, but now that he mentioned it, they really were good Muslims, and wanted to insulate themselves from a now-perceived “threat” in too-secular Jakarta, so the pervert police was born. And let the subjugation begin!

Prabowo and his greedy bunch really are very, very clever.

Add a substantial war chest, and poor little Aceh seems doomed.

So what’s Jokowi going to do about it?

Not much, if the Sept 22 article in the Nation, (“Jokowi’s Way”) mentioning Aceh only once, is any indication. Remember, he’s the guy who’s said he’s “pro economic expansion” and wants to increase palm oil production by 30%. “He is now backed by some of the most well-known oligarchs in the land, whose political parties are more like obliging banks . . . “ http://www.thenation.com/article/181466/jokowis-way 

Plus, Prabowo is not finished with Jokowi by a long shot.  See the Economist’s October 4 article, The Empire Strikes Back http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21621874-old-guard-out-obstruct-next-presidents-ambitious-plans-reforms-empire-strikes

The Sharia police have now extended their tentacles into rural Aceh, where you didn’t use to have to worry about hiring a driver who was not a husband or brother to take you somewhere, or receive agriculture training from a man who wasn’t a relative. 

"This bylaw has been highly anticipated by the people of Aceh, who have long wanted to see complete Islamic law on the veranda of Mecca," [Rami Sulaiman] said.” http://www.bangkokpost.com/lite/breakingnews/434576/aceh-approves-caning-for-gay-sex

In a pig’s eye they do.

You think the farmers in the Aceh Timur rainforest have time to worry about whether the boatman who takes them across the river to their cocoa farms is a relative?

You think tiny assistance providers like JMD are going to walk away from the livelihoods of 31 women and 500 family members?

I, however, will not be able to visit these programs.  I will not be able to be driven by the Director of the agency to see the projects that I have helped develop.  I’d laugh if it weren’t so pathetic and transparent.

“Ramli Sulaiman, chairman of an Aceh parliamentary commission that drafted the law, said proving extramarital and gay sex would be difficult.

‘There must be clear evidence and four witnesses who saw the act themselves,’ he said.

‘We can't just accuse people of having extramarital or homosexual sex.’"

And yet as far as I know, the 8 men who recently raped a woman as “punishment” for what they reported (but was never confirmed) as extramarital sex were never prosecuted, AND the raped woman was caned.

That possee of perverts lurking behind lampposts and popping out from behind padangs to arrest women with nail polish having coffee after sunset—are they just hoping for a quick feel before the trip to the police station?

Show me a practitioner of this horrid mangling of true faith and I’ll show you a sexually repressed loser with very few brain cells and an inability to think for himself.

Islam shmislam.  It’s sexual predation dressed up as holy order.  Shame on the lot of ‘em. 

This is, according to the Nation article,  “the result of what happens when you join Islamic modernism with dire economic prospects in a political system in which government elites are all too happy to exacerbate identity-based violence if it means avoiding discussions about their failure to do more for the country. Their sense of opportunism runs deep. Many of the sharia-type laws on the books in Indonesia have been introduced and passed by the secularist heirs of the Suharto government, eager to curry favor with radical Muslims and get on with business.”

So with both the provincial sharia bill and the national de-centralization bill, the national government, under the populist president, is going to be sanctioning sex-obsessed witch hunts in a country whose constitution forbids that Sharia law ever supersede or contradict the Constitution.

As Al Pacio would say, “I got nothin’.”

Vigilante Sharia: sexual torture as the enforcement weapon of choice in Aceh

By now the US and world wire service has reprinted the story that first appeared in the Jakarta papers last week of the woman suspected of adultery in Aceh who was raped by 8 men, doused with excrement, then turned over to Sharia “authorities” for her “real” punishment. And I do believe that almost the entire global community finds this incident as sickening as I do, but there are so many layers of sickness to it that authorities, world leaders, human rights NGOs, and Acehnese citizens themselves seem paralyzed to do anything that will help the situation.  Where do you start?  Start with a province where the majority live in poverty, are jobless, unable to feed their families, have barely survived 30 years of warfare in their own backyards, and then ten years ago watched as 180,000 of their family members were swept away by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.  Start with the venomous bitterness that the thousands of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) supporters feel towards the Indonesian government for not keeping promises made as far back as the 1940’s regarding Aceh’s ability to govern itself.  Start with (as usual) corrupt and greedy politicians who promise these poor, disenfranchised, furious young men that if they help elect this or that politician (using whatever means necessary) Aceh will be given full autonomy and will be able to claim what is its right.  And that “right,” specifically, is the proceeds from natural resource extraction.  And they are convinced that since the “enemy” is Jakarta, the Indonesian Constitution is also the enemy.  No matter what Sharia implies, the fact that it is not the law of the land according to Jakarta is enough for most of the disenfranchised to grasp it to their bosoms regardless of their understanding of it.  Understanding is not the issue for these delirious groups of men spoiling for a fight.  Contrary to what some of the articles regarding this rape and caning have reported, Aceh is NOT allowed to practice Sharia if it violates the spirit of the Constitution. The Helsinki MoU stated that National law takes precedence over Sharia law.  There is NO national precedent for caning, stoning, rape, or public humiliation.

 All politicians know this, but few are acting on this blatant disregard for the law so close to election time.  I do not know what their excuses were the other times this raping of a “Sharia violator” has happened.  And it happens a lot, especially in eastern Aceh, GAM stronghold, only it was the Sharia police themselves who raped the suspected adulterers.  I doubt they raped the men involved.  And I wonder why that act in itself is not considered adultery, and why they were not caned.  I suppose it’s too much to wish for extra.  Where’s a useful gang of Sharia rapists when you need them?  I am trying my hardest not to become disillusioned by a few incidents, but it is very difficult not to despair right now.

Another thing the articles are missing is that these thugs, rapists and witch-hunters are not even obeying the twisted version of Sharia that they purport to be upholding.  For one thing, “adultery” can only be proved by having three witnesses to the actual sexual event (which is not just an unsupervised visit to someone’s house—that may be against Sharia but it’s not adultery.)  So . . . three witnesses to adultery . . . which makes you wonder about the mental health of a society that by and large has nothing better to do then lurk about in packs of three or more, looking for people who they hope they can see punished.  The fact that these articles report that “prominent Islamic leader” Teungku Faisal Ali "cautioned citizens against taking Sharia into their own hands" is fairly ironic, since that is what Aceh’s administration has done all along--for political, not religious reasons. Jakarta will not step in and put an end to this horror show so close to the presidential elections—yet that is what it MUST do, now.  Everyone's a Sharia vigilante now—it gives these impoverished and marginalized fighting-age males a convenient target for all their rage and powerlessness—and it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam.

For my part I plan on contacting as many human rights organizations and global women’s groups as I can to at least place a spotlight on what has become essentially a fascist state run by sexual sadists.

Jakarta has got to step up NOW and put an end to this flouting of the Constitution.

My Indonesian friends are also saddened, disgusted, and disheartened about what has happened.  One writes “I am angry, sad, and frustrated because I don't know what to do to stop that stupid Shariah law!! Maybe we should call it ‘Shariah low!’"

Another wrote back to her: “Please let’s not give up; as Bung Karno said, ‘There is no end for a fighting nation.’ We should move forwards until justice prevails.  I am just not sure whether I can be in Jakarta right now.”

Read the article/s here:

Indonesian woman who was gang raped by eight men now faces caning for adultery

Eight men allegedly gang-raped a widow in the conservative province of Aceh, accusing her of having sex with a married man. The region’s Sharia leader decided that despite the trauma that came from rape, the woman still deserves to be caned for the initial charge of adultery.

BY Carol Kuruvilla  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 8, 2014, 11:51 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/indonesia-gang-rape-victim-faces-caning-adultery-article-1.1784418#ixzz31WLmKUVN

Aceh Rape Victim to Be Caned, Shariah Official Insists

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/aceh-rape-victim-caned-shariah-

Indonesian gang-rape victim faces caning

Widow purportedly punished for having sex with married man may still be caned for affair under sharia laws of Aceh province      Tuesday 6 May 2014 09.52 EDT

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/indonesian-woman-allegedly-gang-raped-punishment-caning

Here we go again . . .

The Diplomat had some creepy and not unexpected news last week.

Aceh’s Sharia Police Get Extended Powers

--Detention centers are being prepared to process those who fall foul of religious codes.

By Rob Yates

April 18, 2014

In line with laws passed in December that extended the Aceh Sharia Police’s power to detain suspects, local authorities in Indonesia’s semi-autonomous region have recently been preparing detention centers to process those who violate provincial religious codes. Zulkarnain, head of the Sharia Police, or Wilayatul Hisbah (Wi-Ha) as they are known, told The Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that he hoped these centers would soon be prepared “in all 23 districts and towns across Aceh.”

The Wi-Ha are a familiar presence in Indonesia’s northernmost region. Following the Special Autonomy Law in 2001, Aceh’s provincial legislature enacted a series of qanun, or local laws, governing the implementation of Sharia. Since then, the enforcement of these qanun has largely been carried out by the Wi-Ha, who have functioned alongside the national police force for over a decade.

Although the extent of the Wi-Ha’s legal authority during its history has, at times, seemed less than clear to members of the public, legislative developments over the past five years point towards an extension of jurisdiction, as well as a general increase in the number of Sharia-related offences being introduced.

 “Jurisdiction” is a funny thing in Indonesia.  Nowhere is it clearer than in Aceh that even though Sharia 2.0 violates the Indonesian Constitution, the Administration is allowing Acehnese authorities their pretend independence . . . as long as it doesn’t interfere with either the mainland or economic prosperity/public relations.  And I will bet that if the young woman from Jakarta who was arrested last week at a coffee shop and accused of being a sex worker makes any type of a national fuss, there will be a lot of post-election back-pedaling from the veil-and-stoning crowd.

 Decreed punishments for such violations also seem to have grown more severe, although their implementation is, in many cases, not carried out.

In April 2009, two new and controversial qanun were passed, reiterating existing Sharia prohibitions, enhancing some penalties, and introducing an array of new offences. The new laws authorized punishments that included up to 60 lashes for “intimacy,” up to 100 for engaging in homosexual conduct, and death by stoning for marital adultery.

These laws still stand today [because Zaini, a PA member and Irwando foe who signed off on them, is still governor] and, with the new Qanun Jinayat passed on December 13 last year, the Wi-Ha have new powers with which to enforce them. Previously, the Wi-Ha could only search and detain suspects briefly. After having been “educated” about Sharia principles, a process notoriously vague in its phrasing, perceived offenders had to be released if the official police had not been involved. Now, the Wi-Ha can detain suspects for up to 30 days prior to a legal trial. This period can then be extended for a further 30 days should the awaited trial be delayed. Zulkarnain has also indicated that those awaiting trial could be transferred to regular jails should the detention centers become overcrowded.

[I am not so sure that the “law” has changed regarding this.  Many believe it is just an emboldened political move on the part of PA, encouraged by Probowa in return for support in the presidential election.

Gosh, this is so slimy I think I need an antimicrobial sponge bath.]

What is the significance of these new developments? The general implementation of Sharia is not necessarily controversial for many Acehnese. Despite anger voiced by some of the younger generation at recent restrictions on clothing and public intimacy between unmarried couples, and despite some viewing the Wi-Ha as a public nuisance, many individuals support the religious principles that underlie Aceh’s strict legislature.

[As noted in previous posts, to say you are anti-Sharia is to say you are against Islam. No one will say that. It’s a version of “Think about the children,” and then whatever harebrained scheme you promote will get frightened and tacit approval. ]  However, international observers and human rights groups in the past have pointed towards the scope for abuse and selective implementation that these laws can afford.

A year after the two controversial qanun of 2009, Human Rights Watch published a report condemning the manner in which the Wi-Ha had been enforcing this legislation, stating:

“Human Rights Watch takes no position on Sharia law per se, which supporters say is a complete system of guidance on all matters in life, or on the provisions that regulate the internal workings of Islam. However, the two laws singled out in the report are applied abusively and violate both Indonesian constitutional protections and international human rights law.”

The report also contained testimony from “suspects” who had undergone physical and sexual abuse from Wi-Ha officials, [also known as the Morality Police—how about that!] as well as attacks from members of the local community upholding and encouraged by the 2009 codes. One female even claimed to have been raped by the Sharia police who arrested her before being released the next morning. [This is not an uncommon story.]

Given the criticism and human rights concerns surrounding the Sharia laws of 2009, some observers and residents may regard Wi-Ha’s recent extension of power with trepidation. On Tuesday, on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, a Wi-Ha raid cracking down on dress-code violations briefly detained 59 people. Zulkarnain said they included 54 women found to be wearing “tight shirts” in public and five men in shorts, adding:

“They were only advised not to repeat their offence and were told that in future, if they’re caught again in another raid, they face the possibility of being taken into custody.”

[If you ever wondered why Aceh has no public funds for programs like job creation, food for hungry kids, or school supplies, it’s because all their resources are now going towards rounding up women in tight shirts. ]

Although these suspects escaped prolonged detention, the gender imbalance shown in this single incident suggests that women may well find themselves disproportionately affected by the December ruling.  [And this is a surprise because . . . ?]

Human Rights Watch said that their 2010 report “details evidence that the laws are selectively enforced – rarely if ever applied to wealthy or politically-connected individuals.” It seems being male may also help one escape time in a new Wi-Ha detention center.  [They’re harder to sexually assault, for one. ]

http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/acehs-sharia-police-get-extended-powers/

Apparently, only prostitutes get manicures

Well, it’s starting up again.  Just in time for certain politicos to tell constituents that they’ve “cleaned up Aceh.”  Notice that apart from a few punks thrown in for good measure, everyone arrested was a woman.  One-sided immorality?

Girls netted for prostitution, loitering, attire

Hotli Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, April 01 2014

The sharia police in Banda Aceh, Aceh Nanggroe Darussalam, have rounded up 15 young women after they were “caught” in a late-night coffee shop.

They have been accused of not wearing appropriate Muslim clothing and for loitering outdoors after midnight, both deemed to violate the Islamic moral code.

The women were arrested on Saturday in a number of late-night cafes and coffee shops in a string of sharia-enforcement patrols conducted by public order officers and sharia police in Aceh.

“The patrols were in connection to the proliferation of sharia violations by minors in Banda Aceh, especially in the city center,” said Banda Aceh Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and Wilayatul Hisbah (WH) Sharia Police chief Rita Pujiastuti.

According to Rita, it was believed that certain teenagers choosing to hang out in coffee shops until the early hours were involved in prostitution.  [Because what else could they be doing—drinking coffee?]

“Apart from the loitering, we believe they are also involved in sex work,” said Rita.

Besides detaining the girls, the sharia police in Banda Aceh also arrested a number of youngsters dressed as punks and female beauty-parlor employees who were allegedly caught engaging in immoral acts.  [Like tinting hair and giving facials.]

They were detained at the Banda Aceh Public Order Agency and WH headquarters for questioning. They will be released in one day pending the completion of the investigation.

They were jailed without being given access to legal advice.  [It is telling that the Jakarta Post editors decided to include this.]

“The investigation will now focus on what sharia violations they committed. If they are proven to have violated sharia, the cases will be brought before the Sharia Court,” said Rita.

Rita said the police would further intensify raids in areas deemed “prone to sharia violations”.

“We will further fight to uphold sharia until Banda Aceh is free from vice and sharia violations,” said Rita.

Separately, Gita, a teenager from Jakarta, who has only been in Banda Aceh for three months, was one of the teenagers detained.

She said her arrest was without evidence and she strongly protested the inappropriate handling of the incident by the WH officers.

Gita said she and her fellow detainees were in a small crowded cell that lacked sufficient space to lie down.

“I’m an employee who was by chance sitting in a coffee shop. I don’t know why I was arrested for hanging out in a coffee shop late in the evening,” said Gita. [That is probably precisely the charge.  And it will be interesting to see how the “authorities” now try to train the police how to differentiate Jakarta residents from Aceh residents, who would be less likely to attract media attention to what hopefully will render the provincial government a laughingstock in its own backyard.]

She said the sharia police officers had seized her cell phone, thus, she was unable to call her family to tell them she was being held by the police.
“This is too much for me. What’s the basis for confiscating my cell phone?” asked Gita.
Despite her anger, she said she stood no chance against the sharia police.
“I resign to my fate. It’s up to them, they are the ones who hold the law. I’m just the victim,” said Gita as she sobbed. [--to a reporter.  Well done, Gita!]

Recently, the Aceh Council approved the Qonun Acara Jinayah (the Criminal Code Procedure), which mandates that everyone in Aceh, regardless of religion, follow sharia. [It still has not been approved in Jakarta.]

Since the approval, the sharia police have often conducted raids urging women, including non-Muslims, to wear Muslim dress. [Urging?]

On Oct. 3, 2012, a 16-year-old girl committed suicide after certain media outlets reported that she had been arrested by the sharia police for alleged prostitution.

The girl was nabbed the previous evening while watching an organ tunggal performance in her neighborhood in Langsa, Aceh.

The sharia police later denied that they had made the statement labeling the girl a sex worker. [what exactly did they think they did with all the girls they just accused of being prostitutes at the coffee shop?]