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Indonesia 'all shook up' over
singer
By Gary LaMoshi
 DENPASAR, Bali - Some of the most contentious
issues across Indonesia involve ngebor, drilling.
In the far eastern province of Papua, the division of
the wealth from gold mining and mitigating the
ecological impacts of extraction figure prominently in
the province's movement for independence.
In
Aceh at the far northwest tip of the archipelago, where
a ceasefire between separatists and the government
teeters on the brink of collapse, economic and
environmental concerns over oil and gas drilling combine
with interpretations of Islam to create volatile,
divisive passions that threaten national unity.
That description also fits dangdut singer
Inul and her ngebor dance thrusting seismic rifts
throughout Indonesian society.
Ainul Rokhimah
was just another kid in East Java dreaming of escaping
the grind of poverty through music. She traded her
ambitions as a rock star for dangdut, Indonesia's
popular folk music that mixes Indian, Middle Eastern,
Malay and Portuguese rhythms with other influences
ranging from jazz to Led Zeppelin. Like country music in
the United States, dangdut has shaken off its
low-class roots and gained mainstream appeal.
Saving her pennies from singing for Rp3,500
rupiah, she made her way to Jakarta, picking up a new
name, Inul Daratista. More important, she picked up her
trademark ngebor hip gyrations. Pirated video
compact discs (VCDs) brought Inul nationwide exposure
that has made her Indonesia's top-earning entertainer,
commanding up to Rp20 million (more than US$423,000) per
show, as well as the center of national controversy.
Elvis vs King
Inul draws comparisons
with a trend-setting, hip-swinging singer of another
continent and era who also overcame humble roots to
achieve fame so great he was identified by first name
alone: Elvis. However, Elvis had it all over Inul in the
looks and voice categories. Without those
below-the-waist-drilling moves, nothing would
distinguish Inul from thousands of skinny 25-year-old
Indonesian females.
That made the outcome of
Inul's meeting with Rhoma Irama particularly terrifying.
The newcomer went to pay her respects to the singer
popularly known as the King of Dangdut who
introduced heavy metal to the genre's musical mix. In
addition to those credentials, Rhoma is an Islamic
cleric and head of the Association of Malay Music
Artists, the dangdut trade group.
His
highness reportedly lashed into Inul, characterizing her
ngebor as "pornographic", and forbade her to sing
any of his songs. He further accused Inul of "throwing
dangdut music into the mud, tearing apart the
nation's social fabric and encouraging illicit sex and
rape". The Indonesia Council of Ulemas, the nation's
second-largest Muslim organization, supported Rhoma's
call for Inul to abandon drilling, as did the Alliance
for Anti-Pornography Society.
Rhoma's comments
triggered a swift backlash, the norm in Indonesia.
Traditionally, the public has gone along with
establishment figures, particularly venerable,
successful ones and those with religious credentials.
Rhoma wins the trifecta by those
criteria.
Drilling rights
controversy
However, the public reaction was
decidedly for Inul, not against her. A poll in news
weekly Tempo found nearly 80 percent opposition to
banning Inul's performances. A majority of respondents
contended that Rhoma overreacted out of jealousy to a
new star threatening to eclipse his fame.
In
addition to backing from the general public, more than
90 human-rights and civil-liberties groups declared
their support for Inul's freedom of expression. So did
President Megawati Sukarnoputri's husband and brother,
along with former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who is
also a former leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's
largest Islamic organization. (Some wags noted that
Wahid wouldn't see anything wrong with Inul's swaying
since he's virtually blind.) Many readers will be able
to judge for themselves when Inul's international tour
swings throughout Asia, Australia, the Netherlands and
the US.
Women's activists - outraged at Rhoma's
update of the hoary suggestion that rape is a
consequence of titillation with women to blame - and
performers from the movie industry demonstrated their
support for Inul last Friday in downtown Jakarta,
presenting their interpretations of her ngebor
dance from the back of a flatbed truck with Inul's music
blaring. In West Java, several hundred dangdut
artists held their own rally to back Inul's freedom of
expression. Television stations continue to air Inul's
snack-food and energy-drink commercials that include
drilling.
It's fair to ask whether the
controversy swirling around Inul and her twirling hips
indicates Indonesia is growing up or dumbing down. With
an estimated 40 million unemployed, no way out of an
economic crisis in its sixth year, its first free direct
presidential election ahead next year and no worthwhile
candidates in sight, surely Indonesians have more
pressing matters than an insignificant dangdut
singer.
Question authority
Still, it's
undeniable that Inul, like Elvis, indicates the times
they are a-changin'. For example, it's a shift from the
authoritarian days for public defiance of an old lion
like Rhoma in favor of an underdog newcomer. While Rhoma
may be yesterday's man, he still wields significant
power behind the scenes in the music industry, where the
real action in Indonesia remains.
Perhaps
equally significant is the readiness to dismiss
religious authorities' moral preaching. Inul found
support in some Islamic circles, but that's beside the
point. "This ought to tell people not to worry so much
about the power of radical Islam here," one of my Muslim
friends notes. "People don't follow everything they hear
in the mosque" (see Indonesia doth protest too little,
March 29).
Academics have seized on the defense
of Inul's freedom of expression to demonstrate how much
things have changed since the bad days of Suharto.
However, support for Inul has been far from absolute.
Some, like deposed president Wahid, contend that only
the Indonesian Supreme Court can restrict expression.
Others say that it's up to the community to set
standards to replace those of Suharto's
authoritarianism, warning of social and moral
degradation without such standards.
It's
interesting to note that defenses of Inul have been far
more spirited and less qualified than those heard for
journalists (see Indonesia: Tempest over Tempo, March
14). You can dismiss that difference on simple grounds:
watching a young woman sway her hips is far more
appealing than anything you'd read in a newspaper. More
cynical observers would add that whatever ripples Inul
causes in Indonesia's moral fabric, there's little
chance she'll upset the prevailing power structure
beyond the music business.
Students of musical
politics will note that Elvis pushed the boundaries in
the US, but it took The Beatles, an injection of genius
from overseas, to create a social revolution. Across the
front page from Inul, news that Singapore's government
investment company and Deutsche Bank (see Indonesian selloff: Singapore scores
again, May 8) bought the Indonesian government's
stake in Bank Danamon is a reminder that such foreign
inspiration is a long way off. Inul, her critics and
supporters indicate that domestic genius is no more
evident.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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