Sharia law in operation: Indonesian couple flogged in public // Kate Lamb: Indonesia still fighting ghosts of communism
Two Indonesian
Christians were publicly flogged in conservative Aceh province Tuesday for
playing a children’s entertainment game seen as violating Islamic law. Hundreds
of onlookers ridiculed and took pictures of the pair were who were among five people
– including a couple whipped two dozen times each for showing affection in
public – who were lashed with a rattan stick. Aceh is the only province in the
world’s most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes sharia law and
people can be flogged for a range of offences – from gambling, to drinking
alcohol to having gay sex or relations outside of marriage.
On Tuesday, Dahlan
Silitonga, 61, and Tjia Nyuk Hwa, 45, were flogged six and seven times
respectively after being arrested for playing a long-standing game at a
children’s entertainment complex that lets users exchange coins for prizes or
vouchers, including cash. The pair were accused of gambling while another man
Ridwan MR got 19 lashes for being involved in the game. “This is to create a
deterrent effect, in order for people not to repeat violations of Islamic
sharia law,” Banda Aceh’s mayor Aminullah Usman said. “We purposely do it in
front of the public ... so it won’t happen again.” About 300 spectators,
including some two dozen tourists from neighbouring Malaysia, jeered the
gambling-accused trio as they were whipped on a makeshift stage outside a
mosque. “You are old, show remorse,” the
crowd screamed. Non-Muslim Tjia Nyuk Hwa tried to hide her face in a specially
provided white cloak with head-covering hijab.
The two Christians are
among just a handful of non-Muslims to be punished under Aceh’s strict
religious law since it was adopted in 2001 as part of a deal with the central
government to end a long-running insurgency. In January, an Indonesian
Christian was flogged for selling alcohol in the province at the tip of Sumatra
island, which made headlines recently after local police publicly humiliated a
group of transgender women. About 98% of Aceh’s five million residents are
Muslims subject to religious law. Non-Muslims who have
committed an offence that violates both national and religious laws can choose
to be prosecuted under either system. Christians and other non-Muslims
sometimes choose a flogging to avoid a lengthy court process and jail term.
Indonesia still fighting ghosts of communism
The epic 1984 propaganda film, which depicts communists as violent savages, is being played in villages, mosques and to the military. During the Suharto era it was mandatory viewing – aired on state television every 30 September until his downfall in 1998. As part of this latest offensive the military has also issued an internal memo to its troops to restrict screenings of Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2014 documentary film The Look of Silence. That film depicts a rather different version of events – one that explores the violence of the Indonesian state.
According to historians, in 1965-1966 Islamic youth and paramilitary groups with military backing massacred between 500,000 and one million suspected communists across the country.
More than half a century later that bloody purge remains deeply sensitive. No one has ever been held to account. It is why the military is attempting to limit Oppenheimer’s film, and why the ghosts of communism continue to be dredged up even though the ideology has been outlawed here since 1966.
read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/01/beware-the-red-peril-indonesia-still-fighting-ghosts-of-communismsee also
