Jakarta Globe, Armando Siahaan | April 10, 2011
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| PKS lawmaker Arifinto tells a press conference on Friday that he was unaware a link he received in an e-mail led to pornography. The PKS lawmaker was photographed allegedly watching pornography on his tablet computer during a plenary session in the House of Representatives. (Antara Photo) |
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Nazril “Ariel” Irham must be smirking right now, knowing that a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party, which was one of the many groups calling for him to be imprisoned over his leaked private sex tapes, was caught red-handed watching pornography.
A Media Indonesia photographer caught Arifinto, a legislator from the party also known as PKS, opening a porn Web site on his tablet computer during a House of Representatives plenary session on Friday.
Arifinto admitted that it was in fact an adult site that was shown on his gadget, but he claimed he had merely opened a link attached to an e-mail he had received from an anonymous sender.
But one of the photos clearly showed that Arifinto had his fingers on the screen, which was filled with thumbnails of different sex videos on the site.
I want to make it clear that my anger over this matter does not stem from the act of watching porn itself. Rather, it is the many layers of irony and hypocrisy that I cannot stand.
Arifinto dons the uniform of the uber-conservative PKS, which was one of the most aggressive advocates of the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law.
So for PKS to have one of it own sons break that law, not to mention doing it in the same place where the law was drafted and passed, is colossally hypocritical.
Moreover, let’s not forget that PKS is the party of the antipornography bill’s godfather, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring.
Tifatul was one of the first public officials to condemn Ariel’s sex tapes and denounce them as a violation of the Anti-Pornography Law.
He was also the man who has religiously pushed for the filtering of pornographic Web sites, including on BlackBerry devices.
So the big question now is, what will Tifatul do? Will he push for the porn-watching politician to get punished? Or will he, like other PKS officials, make ridiculous excuses to defend his colleague.
I’m equally interested to see the reaction of Islamic hard-liners like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).
They mobilized their followers to make sure that authorities put Ariel behind bars, and they were also ready to blitzkrieg Japanese porn star Miyabi at the airport upon hearing of her plans to shoot a part in a local movie.
Now we have a lawmaker, a representative of the country’s largest Islamic party, caught watching porn. According to FPI’s worldview, shouldn’t this guy be dealt with swiftly and harshly, given that he has clearly tarnished the reputation of all Muslims?
Even if we put the porn issue aside, the Arifinto controversy should at least raise serious questions about the work ethics of our lawmakers.
Let’s say Arifinto really was just opening an e-mail. Shouldn’t he be paying attention to the meeting, instead of playing around with his gadgets?
Those who have paid a visit to one of these plenary sessions know that a lot of our lawmakers seem to suffer from attention-deficit disorder.
Many of the politicians that come to these meetings seem do whatever it takes to avoid having to do any actual work, whether it is chitchatting with their friends or playing with their BlackBerrys and iPads. The especially hardworking ones simply fall asleep.
And, of course, there are plenty more who simply don’t come at all, which explains why there were no lawmakers sitting around Arifinto when the incriminating picture was taken.
A year ago, lawmakers were under fire over their chronic absenteeism at plenary sessions. Even after all of the media scrutiny, most of these sessions still never reach anything close to a full house.
We are also faced with our legislators’ utter inability to actually legislate. Critics have often lambasted lawmakers for being unable to meet the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) target. Has anything changed?
No. Despite their poor performance, most politicians are still living large. They receive big monthly salaries and all kinds of additional allowances. They get to travel overseas in the name of research and, just like a 5-year-old boy asking for a mansion on his birthday, are adamant that their plan to build an ultra-expensive new office building for themselves is completely justified.
House Ethics Council deputy chairman Nudirman Munir said on Sunday that Arifinto had disgraced the House and that he had only two options — to resign or be dismissed. Whether the council has the political will to follow up on these threats is perhaps another matter.
The whole controversy may just play out like the case of Yahya Zaini. He was a former Golkar lawmaker who made a sex tape with dangdut singer Maria Eva that got leaked onto the Internet. Ultimately he did resign over the issue, but he was never pursued by the House Ethics Council or the police.
So will PKS lawmakers put their money where their mouths are and fire Arifinto? Will FPI stage a protest against the porn-watching politician? Will Tifatul call for the police to arrest him for violating the Anti-Pornography Law? I seriously doubt it.
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