Indonesia police fire tear gas at students protesting sex, graft laws

Yahoo – AFP, September 24, 2019

Protesters set fires and threw rocks at riot police in Makassar on Sulawesi
island to protest against a new criminal code law (AFP Photo/DAENG MANSUR)

Jakarta (AFP) - Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters outside Indonesia's parliament Tuesday as thousands demonstrated nationwide against a new criminal code that would, among other things, outlaw pre-marital sex and weaken the country's anti-graft agency.

Protesters covered their faces and scattered in all directions as chaos erupted in the centre of the sprawling capital, Jakarta.

Police also fired teargas at rock-throwing protesters in Makassar on Sulawesi island, while demonstrators broke down a barrier outside the governor's office in Semarang on Java island.

"(We) forcibly dispersed student because they were carrying out anarchist acts, damaging government property and throwing stones at police," said Dicky Sondani, a South Sulawesi police spokesman.

The police action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered 

across the Southeast Asian archipelago (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)

The police action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered across the Southeast Asian archipelago -- including in cultural capital Yogyakarta and holiday hotspot Bali -- for a second day in a row.

On Tuesday, lawmakers debated a wide-ranging legal overhaul including hundreds of new laws that would criminalise pre-marital sex, restrict sales of contraceptives, make it illegal to insult the president, and toughen the Muslim majority country's blasphemy laws.

"We want the bill which is being debated to be revised," said Jakarta university student Amel.

"The police were excessive teargassing us. We weren't being violent," he added.

A vote on the bill was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but President Joko Widodo last week called for a delay in passing the proposed changes after a public backlash.

Riot police used water cannon against protesters in Sulawesi (AFP Photo/
Andri SAPUTRA)

The mooted changes could affect millions of Indonesians, including gay and heterosexual couples who might face jail for having sex outside wedlock, or having an affair.

Widodo's call for a delay came as the Australian embassy in Jakarta issued a fresh travel advisory, warning that the legislation could put unmarried foreign tourists in the crosshairs.

Millions of tourists visit Bali and other beach destinations in the Southeast Asian nation.

Widodo this week stood firm on plans to pass a separate bill that critics fear would dilute the investigative powers of the corruption-fighting agency -- known as the KPK -- including its ability to wire-tap suspects.

The police action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered 

across the Southeast Asian archipelago (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)

Updating Indonesia's criminal code, which dates back to the Dutch colonial era, has been debated for decades and appeared set to pass in 2018 before momentum fizzled out.

A renewed push this year, backed by conservative Islamic groups, was met with a wave of criticism over what many saw as a draconian law that invaded the bedrooms of a nation with some 260 million people -- the fourth most populous on Earth.

An online petition calling for the bill to be scrapped garnered half a million signatures, while hundreds of thousands took to social media to vent their frustration.

In Tibet, religious freedom with Chinese characteristics

Yahoo – AFP, Ludovic Ehret, September 22, 2016

Pilgrims spin their prayer wheels outside the Jokhang Temple in the regional capital
Lhasa, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

The sun has yet to rise over Lhasa, but dozens of colourfully dressed pilgrims are already gathered and reciting prayers at the entrance to Jokhang, the most sacred temple in Tibetan Buddhism.

Many of those gathered -- Tibetans and Han Chinese visitors -- say religion is flourishing under Beijing's rule, with adherents enjoying the freedoms they need to follow their faith.

But this sense of freedom does not extend to the men who live inside the monasteries, analysts and monks say.

Their lives and their movements are heavily regulated by a government eager to avoid any hint of disobedience in the restive region which, although technically autonomous, is tightly controlled by Beijing.

"We are not free," said a 33-year-old monk from the neighbouring province of Sichuan. AFP is not naming the man.

"To get into Tibet from another province, you need a certificate with your name, address and identity card number.

"Everything has to be stamped by the monastery, the Bureau of Religious Affairs and the police," he said outside the Jokhang monastery.

Nearby, groups of policemen -- some from Tibet itself -- are discreetly patrolling, some holding walkie-talkies and others guns.

A monk is seen outside the Jokhang Temple in the regional capital Lhasa, in 

China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

This area of the capital is calm for now, but authorities are not taking any chances. In 2008 it was the site of deadly riots which erupted following protests by monks against Beijing's rule in the region.

The government clamped down after a period of violence against non-Tibetans, in particular the Han Chinese -- who remain a minority in Tibet.

Faith is an integral element of Tibetan identity and nationalism and is therefore perceived as a potential threat to the authority of the Chinese state, explained Kate Saunders of the US-based NGO International Campaign for Tibet.

'Keep your mouth shut'

Some ordinary Tibetans dismiss the idea their religious freedom is being curtailed.

"I come here morning and night. I have never had any problem," the 31-year-old Tibetan taxi driver Zangmai says at the temple.

"I've been praying here since I was about five or six, and one day I'll bring my son here too," he adds as he throws dried grass into a large incense burner, which belches out grey smoke.

For Zhaxi Nima, a 37-year-old Tibetan pilgrim whose left leg is amputated below the knee, faith remains an integral part of his routine.

A pilgrim (L) is seen walking past a paramilitary police patrol outside the Jokhang

 Temple, in the regional capital Lhasa, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (AFP 

Photo/Johannes Eisele)

"Why do I come to pray, despite my handicap? Tibetans are just like that, it's our way of life," he explains.

It is not so simple for religious figures and institutions, experts say.

"Temples, monasteries... Of course, they are controlled," said Jens-Uwe Hartmann, a specialist in Buddhism at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and an expert on Tibet.

"What they are doing is very closely observed."

If religious leaders emerge who are not approved by the Chinese Communist Party, they simply disappear, Hartmann said, adding: "So you'd better keep your mouth shut."

Cultural dilution

Beijing says it "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951 and insists it has brought development to a previously backward region.

But many Tibetans accuse the Chinese government of exploiting natural resources, as well as promoting Han activities and business at the expense of locals and the environment.

They also accuse authorities of diluting their culture and faith as a way of exerting further influence.

China recently unveiled an initiative to get tens of millions more tourists to visit the region, and many of them wander through Jokhang along with the faithful.

Barkhor, the road around the temple that pilgrims walk in a clockwise direction as a sign of respect, displays little Chinese flags on the first floor of buildings. The street is dotted with shops and restaurants to cater to visitors from other regions.

Faith is an integral element of Tibetan identity and nationalism (AFP Photo/

Johannes Eisele)

"People's faith here is very impressive. It's not something you see anywhere else in China," says 22-year-old Peng Meng.

"In the rest of China, because of the Party, countless temples were destroyed," says a young Han, miming a fist coming down on a building.

"In Tibet, Buddhism is preserved," he adds, although many religious structures were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

Wang Xiaobin of the China Tibetology Research Center, an official body based in Beijing, said monks were required to use travel certificates after a wave of self-immolation which began in 2009.

A total of 145 Tibetans, the majority of them monks, have set fire to themselves in the past seven years in protest against Beijing's rule and 117 of them have died, according to International Campaign for Tibet.

"Most of them came from Tibet's neighbouring provinces. And the regional government is worried that some of them are coming to self-immolate in Lhasa," Wang said.

"China recognises 'freedom of religious belief', not 'religious freedom'. Those are different things," he added.

"Clearly one has the right to believe, but there are limits to religious activity."

Strict Indonesian province canes non-Muslim for selling booze

Yahoo – AFP, April 13, 2016

Sharia law enforcement officials cane a non-Muslim woman for selling alcohol in
Takengon, in Aceh province, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith
has been punished there under strict religious laws (AFP Photo)

An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws.

The 60-year was whipped nearly 30 times with a rattan cane before a crowd of hundreds in Aceh province Tuesday, an official said, along with a couple who were subjected to 100 lashes for committing adultery.

Indonesia's Aceh province began

 implementing sharia law after being

 granted special autonomy in 2001

(AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Aceh is the only province in the predominantly Muslim country that applies sharia law, and public canings for breaches of Islamic code happen on a regular basis and often attract huge crowds.

Those caught engaging in adultery, same-sex relationships, drinking and even associating with unmarried members of the opposite sex can end up facing the cane.

Though the law once only applied to Muslims, a bylaw that took effect late last year allowed sharia regulations to be applied to non-Muslims in certain situations, Lili Suparli, a senior official at the Central Aceh prosecutor's office told AFP.

"This is the first case of a non-Muslim being punished under Islamic criminal bylaw," he said, referring to the punishment of the Christian woman.

Aceh began implementing sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an effort by the central government in Jakarta to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

Aceh is the only province in the predominantly Muslim Indonesia that applies sharia

 law, and public canings for breaches of Islamic code happen on a regular basis

(AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Islamic laws have been strengthened since the province struck a peace deal with the central government in 2005.

More than 90 percent of Indonesians describe themselves as Muslim, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of the faith.

Saudi Arabia executes top Shiite cleric

Yahoo – AFP, January 2, 2016

Saudi Shiite women hold placards bearing portraits of prominent Shiite Muslim
 cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in the eastern coastal city of Qatif against
his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 2, 2016 (AFP Photo)

Riyadh (AFP) - Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia executed Saturday a prominent Shiite cleric, who had been behind anti-government protests, drawing angry condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq.

Nimr al-Nimr was executed along with 46 other men, including Shiite activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda killings, the interior ministry said.

Nimr al-Nimr was executed this morning

 along with 46 other people convicted by

Saudi Arabia of "terrorism" (AFP Photo)

It prompted calls for demonstrations, but the brother of the 56-year-old cleric called for calm in oil-rich Eastern Province where Shiites complain of marginalisation.

"This action will spark anger of (Shiite) youths" in Saudi Arabia, but "we reject violence and clashing with authorities", said Mohammed al-Nimr.

The interior ministry said the 47 men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots".

A list published by the official SPA news agency included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004.

Some of them had been convicted of taking part in May 2003 attacks on expatriate compounds in Riyadh that killed 35 people, nine of them Americans, the ministry said.

Others were involved in attacks the following year on a housing complex in the eastern city of Khobar, in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners, and other assaults.

Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom.

Notably absent from the list, was Nimr's nephew, Ali. He was arrested at the age of 17 and allegedly tortured during detention before being sentenced to die, sparking fury from rights watchdogs and the United States.

All those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian.

Some were beheaded with a sword while others were shot by firing squad, said ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki.

Executions have soared in the country since King Salman ascended the throne last January, with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014.

'Oppression and execution'

Saturday's executions were condemned by Iran and Iraq as well as the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, and drew protest calls.

"The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution," said Hossein Jaber Ansari, spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry.

It will "pay a high price for following these policies," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Turki described Iran's reaction as "irresponsible".

"We are completely confident with what we're doing and we believe in it and do not care how others view our procedures, whether on justice or implementation of sentences," he said.

Tehran ally Hezbollah said Saudi Arabia's rulers are "global criminals" and denounced Nimr's execution as a "heinous crime".

Saudi justice ministry spokesman Mansur al-Qafari said "interference in the kingdom's judiciary is unacceptable".

Rights groups have repeatedly raised concern about the fairness of trials in Saudi Arabia, where murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

Bahraini girls run for cover from tear gas in Jidhafs, west of Manama, on 

\January 2, 2015 following a protest against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr

by Saudi authorities (AFP Photo/Mohammed al-Shaikh)

Trial standards 'grossly flouted'

Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther told AFP the kingdom was using "the guise of counter-terrorism" to clamp down on dissent.

The trials "were politicised on the one hand and grossly unfair, because the international standards for fair trial were grossly flouted."

Iran's Basij student militia, connected to the country's elite Revolutionary Guards, called for a demonstration Sunday outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

In Saudi ally Bahrain, police used tear gas to disperse dozens of youths from the majority Shiite population protesting the executions.

And prominent Iraqi Shiite lawmaker Khalaf Abdelsamad called for the closure of Riyadh's embassy and urged the government to expel its ambassador.

"The execution of Sheikh al-Nimr will have serious consequences and bring about the end of the Al-Saud (royal family's) rule," his office said.

In Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a coalition against Shiite rebels, the religious scholars association controlled by them condemned the execution.

Awakening is not suppressible. 16/5/2015 #SheikhNimr, #NimrAlNimr, #NimrMartyred pic.twitter.com/bVTz61FTDN

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 2, 2016

Related Articles:

Statement of the HR/VP Federica Mogherini on the executions in Saudi Arabia


"The Dysfunction of Darkness" - Nov 14, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Paris/ISIS/Dark-Old Energy/USA+Warning for Governments around the World !!!) - (Text version) New

“…  The Dark Menace is Here

I have been giving you messages of the recalibration of dark and light for years:

"Civilization itself is at stake within this movement, and you've passed the marker - an alignment that many said would never happen. This is the fifth time you've been through this opportunity and now, dear ones, you're headed for the potential of peace on Earth. Twenty-three years ago, we told you this could happen and that the potentials were strong for it. Now, all that is around you is struggling with it, for the shift is here. I'll say this over and over: The old energy of darkness dies hard, screaming and struggling to keep what it has had, and it struggles with its own demise. So that is the energy we speak of now, and the subject is the Human consciousness balance between dark and light."

Kryon, Feb 2012, San Antonio, TX (*)

Over a year ago, I also gave you predictions that the coming change will be different from anything you have ever expected. (**) There is darkness that has come together on this planet, and we told you it would increase. It is a response to the light that you have turned on. It is fighting for its own life within the old energy. A consciousness of darkness has always prevailed on the planet. Corruption and greed, and uncaring death, have always been the way of an older Human nature. Suddenly, in this precession of the equinoxes, the prophecies are starting to come true. The end of the indigenous calendars predicted it, and it's here.

The metaphor is clear. Light is starting to be turned on. That is a metaphor for increased awareness - of everything! We told you many years ago that, "When everyone can talk to everyone, there can be no secrets." This was given before the Internet, and now you know what we speak of. This technology is actually a tool for you to fight the darkness. I will show you in a moment. What I give you in this channel may seem impossible. Let me start at the beginning.  …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

“..  The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification

Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.

I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " 

Saudi blogger wins Sakharov rights prize, sparking pardon calls

Blogger Raif Badawi's long struggle for freedom of expression

An Amnesty International activist holds a picture of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi

during a protest against his flogging punishment on January 29, 2015 in front of

Saudi Arabia's embassy to Germany in Berlin. The 30-year-old Saudi has been

 sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and is serving a 10-year jail term - a

case which has drawn widespread international criticism. (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Humble Pie for Home Minister After Controversial Bid to Gag Foreign Pressi

Jakarta Globe, 27 Aug 2015

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, left, has apologized to President 

Joko Widodo for a brazen attempt to curtail press freedoms. (Antara 

Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has apologized for and withdrawn a regulation aimed at increasing government control over foreign journalists operating in Indonesia, following a public outcry over the move.

“I’ve apologized to the president by telephone and immediately rescinded the internal regulation that was sent to regional governments which could have led to misunderstandings,” Tjahjo, from President Joko Widodo’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said late on Thursday.

“I as the minister am at fault … I was wrong,” he added. “I’ve also explained this openly to the foreign minister and to the press.”

The regulation in question, a circular sent out to regional administrations nationwide, demanded that foreign journalists and their local crew have permits issued by the Foreign Affairs and the Home Affairs Ministries. It also obliged foreign journalists to report their activities and acquire permits from all relevant levels of government, from the municipal or district level to the provincial level.

“The letter clearly implies disobedience of a president who is open to foreign coverage, as well as suspicion of the press and civilians,” Poengky Indarti, executive director of the rights group Imparsial, said on Thursday. “It will also lead to less investment and tourism income.

“Imparsial urges the Home Affairs Ministry to revoke the circular as it goes against President Joko Widodo’s position of welcoming foreign journalists covering Papua and other regions in the country,” she added.

Joko announced last May a lifting of restrictions on foreign  journalists reporting from Papua, saying he wanted to end the misinformation about the restive province by granting full access to outside media.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club also took issue with Tjajho’s circular, saying in a statement that the “continuation and expansion of restrictive state policies on visiting journalists is a sad reminder of the authoritarian Suharto regime, and a stain on Indonesia’s transition to democracy and claims by its government that it supports a free press and human rights.”

The JFCC statement added that it found the new requirements “particularly troubling given that the Indonesian government already takes weeks if not months to issue approvals for foreign journalists and film crews to visit Indonesia to work – if at all.”

Raising the issue of "whether the Ministry of Home Affairs understands or heeds orders from the Presidential Palace,” the JFCC also called on the US government to make freedom of the press “a primary topic of conversation” during the planned state visit of Joko to the US, at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

Related Article:

Dutch staffing agency Brunel pulls out of Nigeria because of corruption

Jakarta Globe Wins for 2015 SOPA Excellence in Opinion Writing for Editorial Coverage

Jakarta Globe, Jun 11, 2015

(JG Grab)

Jakarta. The Jakarta Globe received an award for excellence in opinion writing for its editorial coverage last year at the 2015 Awards of The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) on Wednesday night in Hong Kong.

The Globe won in the Group B category, which is reserved for publications or websites with readership smaller than that of major newspapers and services like the International New York Times and Reuters.

One of the editorial entries was for Sept. 26, 2014, which focused on legislators’ decision in the waning days in office of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to pass a bill limiting direct elections. The title “Shame on SBY and His Non-Democrats” became a social media outcry for Indonesians, who took to Twitter by creating the hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY.

“Another example of fearless editorial commentary in a country in which it can still be dangerous to take on vested interests,” a judge commented in the decision for the award.

The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence were established in 1999 as a tribute to editorial excellence in both traditional and new media,  and were designed to encourage editorial vitality throughout the region, according to SOPA’s website.

A Sign of Change as Indonesian Soldiers Watch ‘The Look of Silence’

Jakarta Globe, Mar 08, 2015

‘Senyap’, or ‘The Look of Silence’. (JG Photo/ Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

Jakarta. Legislators, historians and human rights activists have hailed a local military commander’s move to have his soldiers in Semarang, Central Java, watch “The Look of Silence” by award-winning American director Joshua Oppenheimer — a documentary on the state’s purge of suspected communist sympathizers that left up to 500,000 people dead.

Maman Imanulhaq, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said the willingness of Semarang military commander to require his men to watch the movie marked “good progress” toward creating professional soldiers with a healthy respect for human rights.

“I’m sure that some of them will not agree with the movie, but by watching it we can see that they want to try to understand,” he said. “Hopefully, if they don’t agree then they can make another movie challenging it, not use violence or ban it.”

He expressed hope that the fact that military officers had embraced rather than shunned the documentary was an indication that there might be a willingness by the authorities to look into the widespread abuses committed by the military and state-sponsored militias during the purge that ran from 1965 to 1966.

The official narrative is that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) sparked the whole incident by attempting a coup to take down then-president Sukarno. That story, though, has long been debunked by independent historians and rights activists as a cover for the military, led by Gen. Suharto, to stage its own ouster of Sukarno.

The military’s killing spree resulted in the deaths or disappearances of up to half a million people suspected of being members of the PKI — at the time the biggest communist party in the world after those in China and the USSR — or communist sympathizers.

Tunggal Pawestri, a right activist, welcomed the screening of “Senyap,” which looks back at the tragedy through the eyes of a relative of one of the victims, saying that could serve as a “gateway to discussion and reconciliation efforts” between the military and those it killed.

Oppenheimer, the documentary’s Oscar-nominated director, said he felt odd seeing photos of hundreds of soldiers in full uniform as if they wanted to go to war sit in front of a screen that was showing his film.

He said in a statement that the scene was surreal for him, but at the same time provided a ray of hope. He said he hoped that the well-recorded military involvement in canceling and banning the movie would not happen again.

Instead, he said, in the future the military should be actively involved in discussions and help answer questions during community events.

On the reconciliation process in Indonesia, he said that a solitary event of soldiers watching the documentary was not all that significant, considering the central government’s policy on human rights.

After half a century of impunity, Oppenheimer said he would not rush to conclude that reconciliation, a revelation of the truth, justice and rehabilitation for victims would take place just because of one screening attended by soldiers.

Bonnie Triyana, a historian, also doubted if making soldiers view the documentary would change the government’s approach to the massacre.

“This is good news. However, it’s too early to say whether it will affect the state’s policy on the 1965 killings,” he said.

Hundreds of soldiers in Semarang, attended the screening of “Look of Silence” on Feb. 26 in the headquarters of the district military command and ordered by the commander, Lt. Col. Taufik Zega.

“The screening was aimed at clarifying the intention of the documentary production, in order to avoid misunderstandings,” Central Java’s Diponegoro Military Command said on its website, although it stopped short of explaining what misunderstandings.

“The screening was part of efforts to examine facts about what actually happened in 1965, because many people have conflicting opinions in regards to what happened,” it added.

By watching the movie, soldiers were expected to be able to explain to the public the content of the movie and its connections with the Indonesian Military (TNI), when confronted about the issue, the site said.

“The Look of Silence,” which first screened last year, is a follow-up to Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Act of Killing,” released two years earlier.

While “The Act of Killing” explores the anti-communist pogrom by getting the perpetrators to re-enact their crimes, “Look of Silence” looks at the massacre through the eyes of its victims.

In 1965, Ramli was murdered as a teenager for his alleged support of the PKI. The film crew follows his brother, Adi Rukun, born 1968, as he meets and confronts Ramli’s murderers and their families.

When “The Act of Killing” was released in 2012, it was screened in secret in Indonesia, for fear of government retaliation.

“The Look of Silence,” though, premiered with a public viewing in Jakarta on Nov. 10 — National Heroes Day — last year.

Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reaffirmed its support for the screening of the film throughout Indonesia, stating that it was a part of human rights education and national reconciliation.

Nevertheless, the movie has been met with rejection from some groups, such as the hard-line Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), whose members stormed the campus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in December while a student organization was screening the film.

The screening of 'The Look of Silence' was held in the headquarters of the

 district military command, attended by the commander, Lt. Col. Taufik Zega,

 as well as chiefs of subdistrict military units under his supervision (Photo

courtesy of the Indonesian Military)

Related Articles:

Indonesian Soldiers Ordered to Watch ‘The Look of Silence’

Army also wants peace with India, says Pakistan's ambassador

Tradition meets Twitter as Saudis pledge to new king

Yahoo - AFP, Wissam Keyrouz, 27 Jan 2015

Saudi Arabia's new King Salman attends a ceremony at the Diwan royal
palace in Riyadh on January 24, 2015 (AFP)

Decades ago, Saudis trekked across their desert kingdom to pledge allegiance to their new kings at their palaces. Now they are just using Twitter.

Thousands of Saudis have poured into the palace of King Salman who acceded the throne after the death of his half-brother Abdullah last week.

Many others exercised the entrenched tradition at the palaces of provincial princes.

Saudi blogger Raef Badawi, shown
in Jeddah in 2012, was sentenced
in May 2014 to 10 years in prison,
1,000 lashes and a fine for
"insulting Islam" (AFP)

But thousands of others have pledged their allegiance to the new ruler online, taking advantage of social media networks.

Chief among them is Twitter, whose popularity has exploded with an astounding 40 percent of Saudis now using the microblogging website.

Saudi Arabia is governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, but authorities have stopped short of banning Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, unlike in the Islamic republic of Iran.

Ultra-conservatives tweet as much as liberals in the tightly censored absolute monarchy, with clerics attracting the most followers, like Mohammed al-Arefe who has 10.8 million of them.

However several users have faced jail over their posts that have been deemed offensive to the authorities or to Islam.

King Salman himself has an account that saw its number of followers surge to 1.6 million as he became the monarch.

"I pray to God to help me serve our dear people and achieve their aspirations, and to keep our country secure and stable," read a tweet posted on the account following his accession.

A hashtag in Arabic declaring "I pledge allegiance to King Salman" spread quickly among Saudi tweeps after King Abdullah died on Friday, as users of the site mourned the late monarch.

'Progress without abandoning tradition'

"I have pledged my allegiance through Twitter because as we progress technologically, we do not abandon our identity and traditions," said Twitter user Salman al-Otaibi.

"This pledge is a duty on every Muslim," he told AFP.

Metab al-Samiri tweeted: "With full obedience, I pledge allegiance to you Salman."

The pledge is both an Islamic obligation to provide the ruler with legitimacy and a tribal commitment to obey the new leader.

Twitter has also proven to be a headache for authorities in Gulf monarchies as social media blogging sites render their censorship largely helpless.

Users calling for reforms in the kingdom have taken to the platform to voice discontent and demand concessions from the ruling family.

"We want a consultative Shura Council that is elected by the people, capable of legislating laws and holding the cabinet to account," said one tweet.

"This way, the alleged reforms could be achieved," it added, using another popular hashtag that said: "Demands for King Salman."

Despite timid steps to introduce reforms, Saudi Arabia under Abdullah remained a tightly controlled kingdom, where conservatives continue to play a strong role.

The case of blogger Raef Badawi serves as an example of the Gulf state's ever-tightening freedom of expression.

Badawi is serving a 10-year jail sentence for insulting Islam, and he has also been sentenced to 1,000 lashes, having received 50 of them in public this month.

Twitter is "the source of all evil and devastation", said the kingdom's top cleric Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh in a fatwa edict in October.

"People are rushing to it thinking it's a source of credible information but it's a source of lies and falsehood," he said.

Despite such warnings, there are no signs of Twitter's popularity waning in Saudi Arabia, whose five million users give the kingdom the world's highest penetration.

A woman's open & direct msg to Saudi authorities worth much more than her husband's words. #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled pic.twitter.com/PV7K5imDEn
— Ali Batu Karaali (@abkaraali) January 28, 2015

THANK YOU @MichelleObama for standing up for women. Now can we also tell them that lashes & beheadings are not ok. #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled
— Piccia (@Piccia) January 28, 2015

Related Articles:

Michelle Obama opts to forgo headscarf during Saudi Arabia visit
Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds

Facebook Became the New Town Hall and Twitter the Fastest Media