CAMPBELL: Its Saturday evening on a hotel rooftop and love is in the air. An up and coming band called The Adams is shooting a video of their latest love song Baby Baby. This is Jakartas Generation Y, as keen to have fun and be creative as any group of twenty-somethings on the globe. Life for now at least is one big party.
Now by Western standards all this looks quite harmless, even tame but hanging over it all is a proposed Anti-Pornography Bill being pushed by Indonesias new Islamic parties, a bill that would in just a few weeks time, believe it or not, make all this illegal.
The bill would outlaw suggestive lyrics, erotic dancing even public kissing. It would be forbidden for women to show so-called sensual body parts, meaning anything from the neck to the knee. A commercial model like Isabel Yayha could be arrested for wearing a bikini.
ISABEL YAYHA: Everything we do is just going to be forbidden and even whatever, youre not free to you know express yourself and I dont know its going to be a very non-growing and worried nation.
CAMPBELL: More like a Sharia nation than a modern nation?
ISABEL YAYHA: Yes, correct yeah.
CAMPBELL: Seven years after the end of the Suharto dictatorship, democracy has unleashed a mass movement for Sharia law. These Islamist groups are at the forefront of a campaign to end what they see as Western decadence.
The sins are lumped together under the banner of pornography. The most vocal and violent anti-pornography group is the Islamic Defenders Front, known by its Indonesian acronym FPI. Its leader, Habib Rizieq, believes hes on a mission from God.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Recently the nobility of Indonesian culture has started to dissolve and disappear due to the attack of various types of foreign cultures coming into Indonesia, with the result that Indonesia is no longer moral. Now Indonesia is more pornographic than western countries themselves.
CAMPBELL: Mr Habib represents what many Indonesians see as an alien form of Islam. Trained in Saudi Arabia, hes an advocate of the strict Wahabi sect, rooted in Middle Eastern custom and belief that the mosque should rule the State.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Islam forbids theft, Islam forbids corruption, Islam forbids fornication, Islam forbids alcohol, Islam forbids lying. Islam forbids all behaviour that is evil. If Muslims obey these regulations properly theyll become people with morals and all the minorities will be protected.
CAMPBELL: To an outsider, Indonesia doesnt appear to have much of a problem with pornography or immoral behaviour. Its a relatively conservative and family oriented society that already has strict rules on obscenity. Its so-called mens magazines show less flesh than Western womens magazines.
In Indonesia you really do read Playboy for the articles. The publication has a smattering of lingerie and cleavage but absolutely no nudity but even the lack of sex couldnt stop the violence of the FPI.
NEWS REPORT: [Courtesy SCTV News, Jakarta] Hundreds of members of the Islamic Defenders Front went to the offices of Playboy Magazine in South Jakarta today.
CAMPBELL: The FPI greeted the new publication with a rock throwing protest that left the office in ruins. Playboy retreated to the Hindu Island of Bali to start again.
HABIB RIZIEQ: If the government and the law enforcement agencies dont uphold the law then the FPI are forced to act. So if you saw the FPI smashing windows and so on then thats a reasonable reaction.
CAMPBELL: Surprisingly, the FPI doesnt act against far more obvious targets. Every night, clubs in Jakartas entertainment districts openly host prostitution for rich businessmen and expatriates without any trouble from the Islamist groups.
The pornography issue isnt just a source of power for the radical Islamists, theres strong evidence its also a source of money. Weve heard repeated claims that clubs, bars, entertainers, magazines will be told theyll stop the protests if they make them large monthly payments. In other words, this moral jihad has a nice little side-line in extortion.
Inul Daratista is one of the few entertainers prepared to speak out about extortion demands. Shes Indonesias most popular singer of Dangdut, a fusion of Arabic and South East Asian pop, which Islamists denounce as pornographic. These days she can only sing in private. Protestors have managed to force cancellations at every venue where shes been booked to perform.
INUL DARATISTA: I dont know why Ive become an icon of pornography and pornographic behaviour, or a sex symbol because I have never appeared naked in public or even worn sexy clothes. Until now, I still do not know what until now how do I put it Im still sad I cannot accept the fact that my image is so negative that I cannot accept. I apologise for crying.
CAMPBELL: As well as singing, Inul runs a chain of profitable karaoke bars. She says one of the protesting groups, which she declines to name, made her lawyers an offer it thought she couldnt refuse.
INUL DARATISTA: I dont know how much money they wanted. They just said my lawyer had to pay them a monthly bribe. I dont know how much. I didnt need to ask because I refused them from the beginning. I dont want to pay them.
CAMPBELL: Habib Rizieq insists the FPI would never stoop so low.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Thats just an opinion and its never been proven. If FPI wanted to profit from forbidden money like that from dirty money I wouldnt be renting my home and I wouldnt be living in this narrow little lane. I would be living in a beautiful home or maybe in Beverly Hills. I would have a fancy house.
CAMPBELL: It would certainly be cause for concern if the FPI were getting such illicit funding. Like the young men hes training to be the FPIs foot soldiers, Habib Rizieq is an unabashed supporter of Saudi Arabias number of fugitive.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Osama bin Laden, to the Islamic people, is a warrior. Hes not a terrorist, as hes been accused by the West. The terrorists are George Bush, John Howard and Tony Blair.
CAMPBELL: While the FPIs tactics are at the radical fringe of Indonesian society, its politics are increasingly at the centre. Islamic-oriented parties now hold nearly a third of the seats in the national parliament. One of their priorities has been drafting a so-called Anti-Pornography Bill to regulate personal behaviour as well as commercial publication.
Yoyoh Yusroh, a mother of thirteen from the Islamic PKS party, says its exactly what the people want.
YOYOH YUSROH: In parliament itself colleagues in the majority of factions support it. Over 70% support of the bill.
CAMPBELL: Concerns that such radical proposals could actually become law have galvanised the secular face of Indonesian society.
INDONESIAN WOMAN PROTESTOR AT MARCH: This is how Indonesian women is. We are sensual, we are pretty and were erotic!
CAMPBELL: Leading feminists like Dr Gardis Arivia have found themselves in the odd position of campaigning against an anti-pornography bill.
DR GARDIS ARIVIA: [Human Rights Lecturer] Because they call it the Anti-Pornographic Bill most common people think it is about regulating pornography and we do have a problem about all these DVD and illegal VCDs and all that, so but when you look at the articles in the bill, its nothing about regulating these pornographic materials. Theyre trying to push Indonesians to be conservative. Theyre trying to push women to wear they say decent clothes but what does decent clothes mean? It means to cover themselves.
CAMPBELL: Like most of these protestors Dr Arivia is a practising Muslim but her interpretation of Islam is far more liberal than the Wahabis.
DR GARDIS ARIVIA: We are very moderate Muslim country. We have a very different tradition of Muslim. Its very Indonesian Muslim meaning it is not, we have never had a history of adopting Arabic culture.
CAMPBELL: Some proponents of the new rules claim theyre the real feminists, protecting women from being treated as sex objects.
YOYOH YUSROH: You dont need to worry too much about this bill because it is aimed at increasing respect. If people dont wear respectful clothing it has implications for other situations. For example, it weakens the ability of the opposite sex to study.
CAMPBELL: Must of Indonesias business community has reacted in horror to the idea tourists could be arrested for wearing bikinis. Politicians in Bali even threatened to secede. Indonesias Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, has promised the final draft will not include extreme proposals.
JUSUF KALLA: Im sure... Im Chairman of the Party the majority should make the law theyre very moderate - not very restricted about the pornography.
CAMPBELL: But the pornography debate has already put a chill through Indonesias artistic community. Last September the model Isabel Yayha agreed to pose nude for an installation her friend Davy Linggar was mounting for Jakartas Biennale. In deference to local sensibilities he covered the photos with circles. The last thing they expected was trouble from Islamic groups.
ISABEL YAYHA: I mean Im myself a Muslim, I dont feel that they are representing my religion at all.
CAMPBELL: But as a Muslim do you feel its okay to pose nude?
ISABEL YAYHA: Well yes I mean I would call myself a naturalist actually cause Im not doing it out of pornography or whatsoever and I wasnt showing parts that wasnt suppose to be shown. Im still Indonesian.
CAMPBELL: Two hundred and fifty FPI members stormed the exhibition in protest. Rather than acting against the FPI, police hauled in Isabel and Davy for interrogation. The Biennale agreed to take down the installation.
ISABEL YAYHA: They were scared of the pressure, they were scared of this organisation going to destroy the other stuff or maybe other installation or whatsoever.
CAMPBELL: Sharia-style laws are already creeping into towns and cities across the nation. Since December, police in Tangerang, next to Jakarta, have been enforcing what they call a new moral code. In effect, it means arresting any woman they suspect of being a prostitute and seizing any alcohol they can find. The patrol chief, Ahmad Lutfi, denies it has anything to do with Sharia and says great care is taken before any woman is arrested.
AHMAD LUTFI: Its not just a matter of clothing, but of her behaviour because being sexy doesnt necessarily mean youre a prostitute.
CAMPBELL: That wasnt the experience of Lilies Lindawati, a pregnant mother of two who was arrested at 8 pm while waiting at a bus stop on her way home from work.
LILIES LINDAWATI: I was objecting, and I said Im not a prostitute. Im a housewife with a husband and two children. Why have you arrested me? Its not late yet. Theres no law against people being out at this time.
CAMPBELL: She was then tried at an open air court and sentenced to three nights in jail.
LILIES LINDAWATI: They checked my bag, and there was lipstick and powder in there. And the judge said, You take lipstick and powder with you? And I said yes, I take lipstick and powder with me. Whats wrong with that? Im a woman. Its normal.
CAMPBELL: She soon miscarried amid the stress of being falsely convicted. She also lost her job. Her husband, a local school teacher, has faced public ridicule.
HUSBAND: I still have these feelings feelings of resentment. Another effect is that shes too frightened to go out.
LILIES LINDAWATI I stay at home. Im too frightened even to go to Tangerang.
CAMPBELL: The campaign to ban alcohol and prostitution has caught the imagination of other local leaders. Representatives of twenty-two districts have so far visited Tangerang for advice on implementing similar bans.
GADIS: Im very concerned. Its very alarming and theres lots of laws saying that, local law saying women should cover themselves and so forth so theyre still doing it and getting away with it because the government really does not intervene.
CAMPBELL: Modern Indonesia was built on a secular constitution, rooted in the concept of unity and diversity but the morality issue has put the national government in an awkward position trying not to alienate religious parties and their supporters, while not wishing Indonesia to appear backward or extremist.
JUSUF KALLA: [Vice President, Indonesia] Many laws are influenced by Islam, the same as many laws in Philippines are influenced by Catholics. Many laws in Europe are influenced by Christians. It is normal everywhere.
CAMPBELL: Theres no doubt the more radical Islamists want Sharia law imposed across the country and see the Anti-Pornography Bill as a step in that direction. The worlds largest Muslim nation is approaching a turning point to be a country with an open and free culture or one free of what some see as western decadence.
Now by Western standards all this looks quite harmless, even tame but hanging over it all is a proposed Anti-Pornography Bill being pushed by Indonesias new Islamic parties, a bill that would in just a few weeks time, believe it or not, make all this illegal.
The bill would outlaw suggestive lyrics, erotic dancing even public kissing. It would be forbidden for women to show so-called sensual body parts, meaning anything from the neck to the knee. A commercial model like Isabel Yayha could be arrested for wearing a bikini.
ISABEL YAYHA: Everything we do is just going to be forbidden and even whatever, youre not free to you know express yourself and I dont know its going to be a very non-growing and worried nation.
CAMPBELL: More like a Sharia nation than a modern nation?
ISABEL YAYHA: Yes, correct yeah.
CAMPBELL: Seven years after the end of the Suharto dictatorship, democracy has unleashed a mass movement for Sharia law. These Islamist groups are at the forefront of a campaign to end what they see as Western decadence.
The sins are lumped together under the banner of pornography. The most vocal and violent anti-pornography group is the Islamic Defenders Front, known by its Indonesian acronym FPI. Its leader, Habib Rizieq, believes hes on a mission from God.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Recently the nobility of Indonesian culture has started to dissolve and disappear due to the attack of various types of foreign cultures coming into Indonesia, with the result that Indonesia is no longer moral. Now Indonesia is more pornographic than western countries themselves.
CAMPBELL: Mr Habib represents what many Indonesians see as an alien form of Islam. Trained in Saudi Arabia, hes an advocate of the strict Wahabi sect, rooted in Middle Eastern custom and belief that the mosque should rule the State.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Islam forbids theft, Islam forbids corruption, Islam forbids fornication, Islam forbids alcohol, Islam forbids lying. Islam forbids all behaviour that is evil. If Muslims obey these regulations properly theyll become people with morals and all the minorities will be protected.
CAMPBELL: To an outsider, Indonesia doesnt appear to have much of a problem with pornography or immoral behaviour. Its a relatively conservative and family oriented society that already has strict rules on obscenity. Its so-called mens magazines show less flesh than Western womens magazines.
In Indonesia you really do read Playboy for the articles. The publication has a smattering of lingerie and cleavage but absolutely no nudity but even the lack of sex couldnt stop the violence of the FPI.
NEWS REPORT: [Courtesy SCTV News, Jakarta] Hundreds of members of the Islamic Defenders Front went to the offices of Playboy Magazine in South Jakarta today.
CAMPBELL: The FPI greeted the new publication with a rock throwing protest that left the office in ruins. Playboy retreated to the Hindu Island of Bali to start again.
HABIB RIZIEQ: If the government and the law enforcement agencies dont uphold the law then the FPI are forced to act. So if you saw the FPI smashing windows and so on then thats a reasonable reaction.
CAMPBELL: Surprisingly, the FPI doesnt act against far more obvious targets. Every night, clubs in Jakartas entertainment districts openly host prostitution for rich businessmen and expatriates without any trouble from the Islamist groups.
The pornography issue isnt just a source of power for the radical Islamists, theres strong evidence its also a source of money. Weve heard repeated claims that clubs, bars, entertainers, magazines will be told theyll stop the protests if they make them large monthly payments. In other words, this moral jihad has a nice little side-line in extortion.
Inul Daratista is one of the few entertainers prepared to speak out about extortion demands. Shes Indonesias most popular singer of Dangdut, a fusion of Arabic and South East Asian pop, which Islamists denounce as pornographic. These days she can only sing in private. Protestors have managed to force cancellations at every venue where shes been booked to perform.
INUL DARATISTA: I dont know why Ive become an icon of pornography and pornographic behaviour, or a sex symbol because I have never appeared naked in public or even worn sexy clothes. Until now, I still do not know what until now how do I put it Im still sad I cannot accept the fact that my image is so negative that I cannot accept. I apologise for crying.
CAMPBELL: As well as singing, Inul runs a chain of profitable karaoke bars. She says one of the protesting groups, which she declines to name, made her lawyers an offer it thought she couldnt refuse.
INUL DARATISTA: I dont know how much money they wanted. They just said my lawyer had to pay them a monthly bribe. I dont know how much. I didnt need to ask because I refused them from the beginning. I dont want to pay them.
CAMPBELL: Habib Rizieq insists the FPI would never stoop so low.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Thats just an opinion and its never been proven. If FPI wanted to profit from forbidden money like that from dirty money I wouldnt be renting my home and I wouldnt be living in this narrow little lane. I would be living in a beautiful home or maybe in Beverly Hills. I would have a fancy house.
CAMPBELL: It would certainly be cause for concern if the FPI were getting such illicit funding. Like the young men hes training to be the FPIs foot soldiers, Habib Rizieq is an unabashed supporter of Saudi Arabias number of fugitive.
HABIB RIZIEQ: Osama bin Laden, to the Islamic people, is a warrior. Hes not a terrorist, as hes been accused by the West. The terrorists are George Bush, John Howard and Tony Blair.
CAMPBELL: While the FPIs tactics are at the radical fringe of Indonesian society, its politics are increasingly at the centre. Islamic-oriented parties now hold nearly a third of the seats in the national parliament. One of their priorities has been drafting a so-called Anti-Pornography Bill to regulate personal behaviour as well as commercial publication.
Yoyoh Yusroh, a mother of thirteen from the Islamic PKS party, says its exactly what the people want.
YOYOH YUSROH: In parliament itself colleagues in the majority of factions support it. Over 70% support of the bill.
CAMPBELL: Concerns that such radical proposals could actually become law have galvanised the secular face of Indonesian society.
INDONESIAN WOMAN PROTESTOR AT MARCH: This is how Indonesian women is. We are sensual, we are pretty and were erotic!
CAMPBELL: Leading feminists like Dr Gardis Arivia have found themselves in the odd position of campaigning against an anti-pornography bill.
DR GARDIS ARIVIA: [Human Rights Lecturer] Because they call it the Anti-Pornographic Bill most common people think it is about regulating pornography and we do have a problem about all these DVD and illegal VCDs and all that, so but when you look at the articles in the bill, its nothing about regulating these pornographic materials. Theyre trying to push Indonesians to be conservative. Theyre trying to push women to wear they say decent clothes but what does decent clothes mean? It means to cover themselves.
CAMPBELL: Like most of these protestors Dr Arivia is a practising Muslim but her interpretation of Islam is far more liberal than the Wahabis.
DR GARDIS ARIVIA: We are very moderate Muslim country. We have a very different tradition of Muslim. Its very Indonesian Muslim meaning it is not, we have never had a history of adopting Arabic culture.
CAMPBELL: Some proponents of the new rules claim theyre the real feminists, protecting women from being treated as sex objects.
YOYOH YUSROH: You dont need to worry too much about this bill because it is aimed at increasing respect. If people dont wear respectful clothing it has implications for other situations. For example, it weakens the ability of the opposite sex to study.
CAMPBELL: Must of Indonesias business community has reacted in horror to the idea tourists could be arrested for wearing bikinis. Politicians in Bali even threatened to secede. Indonesias Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, has promised the final draft will not include extreme proposals.
JUSUF KALLA: Im sure... Im Chairman of the Party the majority should make the law theyre very moderate - not very restricted about the pornography.
CAMPBELL: But the pornography debate has already put a chill through Indonesias artistic community. Last September the model Isabel Yayha agreed to pose nude for an installation her friend Davy Linggar was mounting for Jakartas Biennale. In deference to local sensibilities he covered the photos with circles. The last thing they expected was trouble from Islamic groups.
ISABEL YAYHA: I mean Im myself a Muslim, I dont feel that they are representing my religion at all.
CAMPBELL: But as a Muslim do you feel its okay to pose nude?
ISABEL YAYHA: Well yes I mean I would call myself a naturalist actually cause Im not doing it out of pornography or whatsoever and I wasnt showing parts that wasnt suppose to be shown. Im still Indonesian.
CAMPBELL: Two hundred and fifty FPI members stormed the exhibition in protest. Rather than acting against the FPI, police hauled in Isabel and Davy for interrogation. The Biennale agreed to take down the installation.
ISABEL YAYHA: They were scared of the pressure, they were scared of this organisation going to destroy the other stuff or maybe other installation or whatsoever.
CAMPBELL: Sharia-style laws are already creeping into towns and cities across the nation. Since December, police in Tangerang, next to Jakarta, have been enforcing what they call a new moral code. In effect, it means arresting any woman they suspect of being a prostitute and seizing any alcohol they can find. The patrol chief, Ahmad Lutfi, denies it has anything to do with Sharia and says great care is taken before any woman is arrested.
AHMAD LUTFI: Its not just a matter of clothing, but of her behaviour because being sexy doesnt necessarily mean youre a prostitute.
CAMPBELL: That wasnt the experience of Lilies Lindawati, a pregnant mother of two who was arrested at 8 pm while waiting at a bus stop on her way home from work.
LILIES LINDAWATI: I was objecting, and I said Im not a prostitute. Im a housewife with a husband and two children. Why have you arrested me? Its not late yet. Theres no law against people being out at this time.
CAMPBELL: She was then tried at an open air court and sentenced to three nights in jail.
LILIES LINDAWATI: They checked my bag, and there was lipstick and powder in there. And the judge said, You take lipstick and powder with you? And I said yes, I take lipstick and powder with me. Whats wrong with that? Im a woman. Its normal.
CAMPBELL: She soon miscarried amid the stress of being falsely convicted. She also lost her job. Her husband, a local school teacher, has faced public ridicule.
HUSBAND: I still have these feelings feelings of resentment. Another effect is that shes too frightened to go out.
LILIES LINDAWATI I stay at home. Im too frightened even to go to Tangerang.
CAMPBELL: The campaign to ban alcohol and prostitution has caught the imagination of other local leaders. Representatives of twenty-two districts have so far visited Tangerang for advice on implementing similar bans.
GADIS: Im very concerned. Its very alarming and theres lots of laws saying that, local law saying women should cover themselves and so forth so theyre still doing it and getting away with it because the government really does not intervene.
CAMPBELL: Modern Indonesia was built on a secular constitution, rooted in the concept of unity and diversity but the morality issue has put the national government in an awkward position trying not to alienate religious parties and their supporters, while not wishing Indonesia to appear backward or extremist.
JUSUF KALLA: [Vice President, Indonesia] Many laws are influenced by Islam, the same as many laws in Philippines are influenced by Catholics. Many laws in Europe are influenced by Christians. It is normal everywhere.
CAMPBELL: Theres no doubt the more radical Islamists want Sharia law imposed across the country and see the Anti-Pornography Bill as a step in that direction. The worlds largest Muslim nation is approaching a turning point to be a country with an open and free culture or one free of what some see as western decadence.