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here we go again. another debate on the implementation of religious practices.
and since i’ve got my electricity back and of course the internet, i will do some revenge blogging ( i mean i will blog everything i wanted to blog about but could not do so due to the past few days blackout).
so, i was doing my task as the committee for welcoming new students at my uni. i noticed that all of the girl freshie were hijabbed ( i mean all of them were wearing head scarf). at first, i thought there was nothing so unusual about that scene. but hei….., i knew that not all of the girl were hijabbed when they first registered to our department.
so we had this dialog:
ms delvi: you are not jilbab wearing girl, rite?
the girl: yes ms
ms delvi: so why are you wearing one today?
the girl: that’s the rule in this new students orientation program ms.
ms delvi: eh, first heard that such rule exists. who said so? who decided on it? on what background? why? how come?
that girl looked so terrified with my question bombardment. her eyes showed disbeliefs to what she just heard. i, part of the system that required her to cover her head that day questioned the same rule that made her appear covered up from hair to heel in that very hot day.
she must think i m crazy as what my cousin thought about me on my strong opposition to the various sharia by laws we have here in west sumatra.
my minor boss must also think that i am crazy since i shunned him instantly when he told me that he was eager to wait for the government to implement the same sharia law they have in malaysia regarding the caning of the part-time model for taking beer in public.
“are you nut?”, i grinned to him. “religion is a matter of faith of which synonym is choice”.
“it’s ok for us mere mortal to preach to other people but to force them to believe in what you believe in or practice what you practice is a crime. you know coercive means to the implementation of religious practices is never in fashion. this coercive means will only bastardize the sanctity of the religion. it only shows that religions have failed to make people believe in them and adhere to their rules. total failure. if things go on this way, we need no more religions and even god will die since god’s place has been taken over by religious mortal lords. god will extinct or may be god is never there! “
“religion is a matter of choice u know. that is what it is called by faith not force”
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i know he must think that i have been completely out of my mind. he looked deeply to my eyes hoping i would retract what i just spewed forth. i stared back at him and coolly announced this:
god’s dead. what we have now are mortals with godly authority.
oh my god now i realized that i have driven him crazy.
1. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will raise an urge to abolish the porn bill.
2. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will never agree to any bill which will rule out how the people should behave and dress.
3. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will agree that no racist, sexist, and chauvinist fellow should become RI 1 (The president of Republic of Indonesia). read my i need a president not a muslim president.
4. i wish that somebody sane in the parliament will seriously think how to press the government to improve any sorts of public service.
5. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will put forward an urgent assembly to discuss about annulling any variety of religious-based by-laws. that’s god’s prerogative not ours mortal.
6. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will press on how to include sex education in the school curriculum. i’m tired of reading ill-informed government sponsored ad that you get HIV because you commit pre-marital sex.
7. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will demand to scrap the rule that a wife must obtain her husband permit before she can process her passport. ayolah sir and madam, my mom is nagging me to get married soon day in and day out. yet, i am too afraid to be married out of a phobia to get a confining husband.
8. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will seriously think about improving our educational system. what about sekolah gratis (free basic education) up to senior high school? i think we can afford it.
9. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will pay more attention to our ailing ecological condition. god is not mad at us when when we are afflicted by massive flood or avalanche or mind-choking haze coming from forest fire. it’s us who are insanely inconsiderable when it comes to damaging the environment. i believe most of today’s disasters are man-triggered.
10. i wish somebody sane in the parliament will instigate a move to criminalize war. living in a peaceful country like mine, i could not bear myself to read or watch the plight of those living in war zones or conflict areas like gaza, afganistan, sri lanka or swat valley, pakistan. worst, i know as everyone does, those who suffer more in wars are women and children.
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m quite happy that secular and nationalist parties won at the last ge. you are free to say that m too allergic to religious or sectarian parties. yes, i am. you know what i think, so much blood has been shed just on the name of religion and narrow-minded sectarian movements. i don’t want it to happen to my beloved country. and i think god is with me since god’s listened to my pray.
disclaimer: this post is not in any sense of the word anti islam. so for those who think that m a cia secret agent who’s brainwashed by christian liberal secular school of thots and deployed to wreak havoc asian religious values; or a secret operative specially trained by some zionist ideologues to destroy islam; or a radical feminist illegitimate daughter of an aging white male canonite orientalist, who thinks that everything western is cultured and everything eastern is uncivilized, or an indonesian version of vs naupaul’s mimic (wo) man who reads salman rushdie’s the satanic verse at the very tender age of five, just go to hell.
on his comment of my me not religious: nevah wanta one, colson said that there was a gradual de-secularization on most part of republic of Indonesia, my country. well, i couldn’t agree more with him since such thing called de-secularization does exist and i terribly feel flabbergasted by it. just look at regions which are predominantly muslim like aceh, west sumatra, some parts of java and some parts of sulawesi. those regions implement the what so-called syariah law, or laws that take islam as their basic tenets. however, i never heard about regions with predominant christian or hindu or buddhist population impose laws which take those religions as their basic creeds. so, if colson is right about the de-secularization, soon probably we will read in the news about majority christian papuas oblige the papuans to go to church every sunday or get fined or jailed if fail to pay the fine or both for constant transgressors. who knows, may be such thing will happen in the future (i duly hope it won’t).
but, so far i notice that it’s only the muslim society which getting more religious lately. no. i don’t think the word religious is in a correct usage here. i reckon they are not going religious but going religiously backward.
i always believe that religion is a matter of choice. you can be considered as religious if you practice your five times prayers voluntarily. i will label you religious if you don your hijab by choice because you think this is one of the many ways to show your piety to your god. you are religious if you sincerely donate one third of your fortune to help the have nots without hoping for words of praises from clapping hands mortals. so, the key words here are: choice and voluntary. those words are key concepts that make religion sacred and holy.
nevertheless, today we see various kinds of syariah-based laws which are legal base for the authority to criminalize you when you do not adhere those laws. let say in aceh, un-hijab-ed muslim women are stopped on the streets by the authority and given a jilbab to wear. or, in my place, female civil servants serving in the office of the major must cover their heads. here, every morning i will see a laughable scene where a female civil servant goes to her office covering her head yet exposing her thighs. it is understandable since her boss just asks her to pakai jilbab (wearing head scarf) but cares not to ask her to cover her legs because to this religious boss what is religiously important is to see all of his female staff memakai jilbab since it’s religious. the same major also signed a bill that all female school students must pakai jilbab regardless their faith or they can’t attend classes. so, now it’s a common sight in padang to see school girls religiously reluctantly cover their heads but intentionally showing up some piece of hair in the front and in the back. i mean instead of keeping all of their hair inside the jilbab, those ‘rebellious’ girls let some flocks to peep out. i believe they behave this way because they wear the jilbab against their will. Things are different with those who ‘choose’ to wear it; they don their hijab properly (in accordance with their different brands of islam, ok).
i also laugh at law that bans an un-married couple to stay at the same room in a hotel for fear of an act of adultery. so, when you partner would book a hotel room you must show the front desk a legal document that you are married. there are sporadic raids committed every nights in hotels or motels around here. if caught red handed those sinful adulterers would be arrested, questioned by the police, covered by the media, in short publicly embarrassed for their (human) carnal desire. i heard and read they do the same thing in tanggerang, west java. what is so derisory about this law is it spares the homos and lesbians (i do not say i bear any grudge to these people, ok). let say if two women book a room in a hotel, it is so unlikely in this religious padang or bukittinggi the front desk will ask, “are you couples”. if adultery is what this law is trying to prevent, it fails in this particular case. what if those women are in love with each other? anything under the sun and in your dirty mind can happen in their hotel room, right? is this law endorsing homosexuality or what? If that is the case, muslim in indonesia are really great in any meanings the word might bear.
what m trying to say is these syariah-based laws only move on the cosmetic stage of the religion. to put it in another way, people obey the laws not because their love to god or their piety but because they are afraid of getting fined, jailed, fired, expelled from school, or raided. It’s so cosmetic, right? those pathetic people are not afraid of the wrath of god but the fury of the major or the head master or the shah. do we still call this vulgar coup d’état against god’s privilege to be feared by his creatures as ‘religious’? that’s what i call a downright bastardization of a religion. the implementation of these religious-based laws, if you’re trained to read between the lines, basically signs the failure the religion. in other words, it fails to make the believers to stick to its teachings and do what it asks the faithful to do that it needs human interference to make the day. does it mean god has failed? who’s the god now? do religions really come from god, then?
i think this kind of law has hurt those who are really religious; it has offended those who practice their faith piously. and i hope no more religiously backward people in power plan to make so more religiously funny religious-based laws which impinge the private domain of the citizen and endanger their civil right.
p.s. read this to view the take of the national commission for women affair on this issue.
well, this is my first serious take on indonesia’s general election. few days ago we just saw the beginning of the open campaign season. for the next 21 days we’ll be hearing all sorts of crabs and crappy promises from 11.ooo member of parliament hopefuls.
on my way from home to padang on last monday, i noticed scores of youths wearing jersey bearing a photo of an MP hopeful (we call them as Caleg here). they occupied an open truck or minivan weaving all sorts of buntings, posters and flags promoting the MP hopeful whose face and name were imprinted on the jersey they were wearing. I expected I would see some hilarious antics such as soaking your whole body with the signature color of a particular party; or shaving your head and leave only some segment of your hair that will form a symbol of a party. I did not see those antics though. Probably the party people thought it was not necessary yet at this early stage of the campaign.
During this election fever (shall i call it euphoria?) i develop a habit of studying all sorts of slogan written on posters of the MP hopefuls. let me introduce you to examples of them:
1. (Fill in the Blank) Bsc, Msc. Anak Petani. Memberi Untuk Nagari/ (Fill in the Blank) Bsc. A Son of a Peasant. Willing to give his all to his district.
2. Mohon Do’a Restunya. (Fill in the Blank), MM, MBA. Menuju Indonesia modern and religious/ I am seeking for your prayer and blessing. (Fill in the blank), MM, MBA. Toward Modern and Religious Indonesia.
3. (Fill in the blank)
19….elementary school no …. Bukittinggi.
19… junior high school no… Bukittingi
19… senior high school no….Bukittinggi
19… Stekpi, Jakarta
19…Southeast Washinton University, magister of economics ……
19…(Someting university in the USA,) liberal arts school, magisterial of International affair.
20.. a Ph.D candidate at UNP
Caleg DPD Bukittinggi.
4. (fill in the blank)…. pilih (……) ya! (fill in the blank)…….vote for me ok!
5. (fill in the blank), the granddaughter of Syeikh something something the founder of the great school something something.
I still have more ridiculous slogans but I’ll save them for future postings. But I surmise that none of these MP hopefuls’ slogan is appealing. None of the slogans can educate voters on why they should vote for them.
Lots of MP hopefuls are asking for our Do’a dan Restu (Prayer and Blessing) but they never tell us why we should mendoakan them (pray for them) and merestui them (give our blessing). Even those with the most sophisticated education have no clues on how to appeal to the voters. They might obtained their double magisters from universities in the US of A, but they cannot come out with a tagline which will make voters trust him to get their voice thru in the parliament. at least for my case, i am not impressed with this double master guy. however, if he tell me how he would help to eradicate poverty and stupidity in my neighborhood on his poster, probably i will spare my time to listen to his ceramah (campaign).
and this one “toward a religious and modern Indonesia” MP hopeful who looks intellectual enough has let me down. He does not give his topic sentence the controlling and ideas and supporting details it deserves. i m still in blue on what he means by a modern and religious indonesia. like i said before, i m allergic to religious people.
then, i just can’t stand MP hopefuls who use their father or mother or grandfather or grandmother or uncle’s name to attract voters. it clearly shows that they are nothing but a bunch of spoiled brats who do not know how to differentiate between a general election from a family debut.
i must say i feel like screaming, “Hello MP hopefuls…where is your program? where is your platform?”
so far, no body’s answering me. therefore, i surmise most of these MP hopefuls are unbelievably dimwits. I still don’t know who to vote for. I’m still skeptical since everybody is asking for my doa restu without telling me what i, the ordinary people, will get if give them that restu. i won’t vote for blockheads.
i do hope that my people can be smart enough not to vote for those dullards. at the last GE, we had already made some big mistakes. we voted for corruptors ( read the paper and you will know lots of MPs have been charged for taking bribes or gratifications), easily sexually aroused dunces who enacted the porn bill, or self-righteous MP from religious political party who can’t be faithful to his wife.
i never get impressed with anyone who tell the crowd that they are religious. i also have a serious problem of allergy to those who are ‘allegedly’ religious. as a result, i get numerous heart attacks whenever i see ballyhoos, placards, posters and pamphlets bearing this kind of slogan: “vote for (fill in the blank) for the national parliament….a young religious activist who insyaallah (god’s willing) will get your voice through”; “The university of (fill in the blank), an intellectual and religious campus”; and “we are indonesian youths: nationalist and religious”.
i’m scared to death if that young religious activist makes his way to the parliament since i envision another stupid law such as the porn law and other laws governing people civil right be enacted. in my city bukittinggi, we have such a ridiculous law which bans unmarried couples from holding hands in public. worse, here in padang, the religious twice-elected major obliged all of the female students to don jilbab (hijab, tudung, whatever you call it) regardless their faith to school. in my own department, a religious professor told the female student to wear the hijab if they take his class otherwise they won’t pass the subject.
i’m feverishly shivering under the scorching sun of the humid padang imagining university students are blinded by strict religious dogmas and never let some reasons prevail. on a not so big billboard, right in front of the secretariat of the student centre, there is written: “pakailah pakaian yang sopan dan islami” (students are expected to wear something polite and islamic). to my horror, what they deem as polite and islamic is different from my concept of politeness and islamic-ness. to me, muslim ladies are no less muslim despite they don’t cover their head. to me, they are no less islamic if they don’t appear like arabic girls with abayas or like afgan girls with burqas. to me, muslim boys are no less islamic if they shave their chin clean. to me, they still have chances to enter heaven even if they don’t have arabic names like nabila, abdul, najib, or salsabila.as a result, this difference sparks a problem: whose concept of politeness and islamic that will be used in our public domain?
most of the time, these people insist on believing that they are the rightest. it is not unknown that in my uni there are two divisions of students; those who spend most of their time in musholla–the abaya clad ladies and the bearded young men–; and those cafe(taria) lovers–the (some of them) smoking, jeans wearing youngsters– who listen to pop music and read ayu utami’s saman without squeaking so many “astagfirullahs” (oh god please forgive us) once they encounter the word kontol (penis) or melancap (masturbating). i belonged to the latter when i was a student, i bore no qualm to the former as long as they don’t preach on me about how i should don my hijab and do not look down at my jilbab which is minier that theirs. but most of the time i had skirmishes with them on what so profane about me wearing jeans is, or what so sacred about them wearing very loose skirts is.
i am in pain realizing that my country’s youths are going ‘religious’. it’s not that i’m religious-less nor m i god-less. i don’t even know why i religiously don this hijab since i was 12.
but, these days those who are ‘religious’ give more harm to people than good. more often than not, those religious people are at the same time self-righteous which is dangerous for the dissenting minds. look at what the front pembela islam (the guards of islam) and the like vigilant groups did in the past few years. they raid clubs which serve alcohol, mob the scantily clad hostesses, and humiliate the unmarried couples found rendezvouzing in the remote corner of the club. they have no authority to do so actually. or, last time i heard some religious muslims who believe that muhammad is the last prophet expelled the ahmadiyahs who believe that gulam mirza was the last prophet from their homes, business premises and mosques forcing them to live as refugees in a foreign place.
those kind of religious people act to purify the world from the sinners as if they were mandated by god to do so. they feel good about it and believe that they will enter heaven at the expense of god’s other not-so-religious-creatures. for the ahmadiyahs’ plight, they reason they do so to show their love to the prophet and guard the legacy of the prophet. but they forget that the great prophet never let people–even his detractors– to suffer before him let alone forcibly uprooting them from their home for what they believe in.
why does the word religious scare me that much? why does it affect me that much? the answer is: because i live in a plural, multi-cultural and multi-religion country.
i tell you i have no problem with people practicing the teachings of their religion. i’ve got no right to tell them not to do so. i admire those who are true to their faith; i admire those who respect other people’s belief even more. if religious people really practice what they preach, i believe, this world will be as safe as haven.
but today’s religious people are not as truly religiously as they say, especially those who busy themselves in politics. i see that to them religious is not a guidance to live a good god-fearing life but a mere political vehicle for power. for that reason, i believe those kind of of religious people should not sit in the parliament or in any government position if they only believe in the sanctity of their own religion. what they think not religious might be religious in other religions and vice versa. the dreaded porn law is the finest example which shows the grave blunder made by the so-called-religious people in my country’s parliament. to the predominantly muslims law makers in senayan, criminalizing nudity or partial nudity might not be a problem. however, they forget that for the papuans who only cover their penises that law is a real problem: the law criminalizes their way of life. to the self-important muslims (not me) this law might mean something good for they have saved their soul from sinning (or getting aroused?)by seeing less sexy girls strutting their stuffs on the streets. or, for muslim madams this law might help them checking on their easily sexually aroused husbands. but all of this religiosity is at the cost of other people’s way of life. so, what is so religious about that?
p.s. i don’t discount the same blunder will not happen in countries with another predominant religion. we see and watch on tv minority muslims or minority buddist or minority christians or minority bahais or minority liberals are unfairly treated by the more religious-driven and politically powerful majority. even once the colonizing western countries used christianity to justify their dreadful colonizing enterprise. got my point?
i talk mostly about islam since it is my own faith and i know one or two things about it. moreover, it is what happens around me.
saman is ayu utami’s, indonesian celebrated female writer, block buster which gained notoriety and much controversy for the use of words that are deemed as vulgars.
wait… don’t start staring at me that way. i know what you are thinking.
this post is inspired by this hilarious news. it said, malaysian clerics has ruled out a national fatwa that tomboyism is against islam. one of them [the clerics] continued to say that god created them [boys] as boys, they must behave like boys…god created them [girls] as girls, they must act like girls.
but i hardly get what this cleric is trying to say. boy’s behavior? which one is it? girl’s attitude? what kind of animal is it? is it biological? or cultural? is there any specific verse in the Qur’an or any hadith ruling out clearly that a particular behaviour is specially attributed to boys or girls?
i am a muslim. i mean i was born as a muslim. biologically i am a female human. culturally i am a woman, no, a girl (that word makes me feel younger). ya ya ya actually they call me a woman because i have boobs much bigger that what boys have. well, it is a kind of difficult for me to find a fit bra. it’s 34 cup F. send me one for my birthday gift please. they name me a girl since i get my period which lasts seven or eight days per month. of course there must be episodes of emoing when my period says hello each month. they label me a woman for i have a vagina and two ovaries for procreation (if i choose to have one). that is absolutely specific to me. that is completely biological. that what differs me from the so-called boys or human with penis.
however, in terms of behaviour i don’t see any differences between mine and that of the boys.
i cry and i know they also cry. they kick but, as long as i can remember,during my school days i often make boys cry to their mama after receiving my high karate-kick. see, i am dangerous, a jagoan at that. they are avid climbers of tree yet i am a monkey. boys swear. i curse. they love football. but hey, i was the manager of my department’s football team. ato, a boy and my classmate, is an incredible cook. moi? the only dish i master to cook is instant noodle. they involve in a brawl. i was a gang leader, an experienced bully at school. i don’t have to relate here how many bruises, marks and scratches i have out of wars with our opponent gangs.
they fall in love. i don’t have to tell you that i fall in and out love countless times. they chase girls. i scare a boy because i declare i love him first. i lure. they flirt.
they wear they hair short. mine is shorter that you boys. they adore themselves by applying all kind of pomade to beautify their hair. i have more than five lipsticks, two blushers, three eye shadow sets, one mascara and of course three eyeliners which come in three different color, namely: black, blue and brown. daily they wear pants. i hate skirt. but they occasionally wear kain sarung when they perform their five times prayer. i get my telekung. their hobby is speed drive. i have given up driving since i hit a boy almost a decade ago.
in short, there is no special behavior attributed to only boys or girls. it is just man made culture that constitutes it. in other words, it is not heavenly promulgated. it is not fixed. it will always change along the ticking of the time. it is never a kodrat.
so why do the ulama have to rule out a fatwa (which is something fixed) on tomboyism which is so relative.
i think it is not right (i am trying not to use strong word here) to rule out that a muslim girl has sinned just because she prefers walking in a particular way that makes her look macho. and it is not right to doom a muslim boy into hell just because he loves to apply a cherry chap stick on his lips.
and it is wrong to accuse all girls who hates skirts as lesbian or tend to be lesbian. what’s wrong of being a lesbian then?
wait…. i am not saying that i am a lesbian. i have the qualification to be labelled as a tomboy girl i assure you. yet, if i want to have sex, i will do it with men, those with penis. on top of that, it has to be consensual. i will defend to your death my right to my vagina. i’ve warned ya.
what i am trying to say is this fatwa is a sexist fatwa. it is not fair. to read it between the lines, this fatwa has gone beyond banning tomboyism. it is actually a religiously legitimate form of woman marginalization and oppression.
what if malaysian muslim girl is culturally demanded to be submissive (as opposed to aggressive attitude ascribed culturally to boys) then she will sin if she speaks her mind against the grain. she will be branded as tomboy because she dares to say no to the status quo. again, with this fatwa, she will sin. she is hell bound. sigh, what a wretched fate befallen muslim woman.
i don’t mean to meddle with some other people’s business by writing on this issue. i am not even a malaysian. but i think this fatwa on tomboyism really stands on a shaky ground. why do i concern? because the same fatwa might see the light in my own country. who knows?
