Observations from Indonesia

Security has been tighter than I've seen it anytime before in Indonesia. We had to go through screening twice-once before going to the ticket counter with all our baggage, and again after we had checked our bags, going to the gate. Cars are inspected when entering hotel drives, and we had to pass through a metal detector entering the lobby. However, often these screenings seem pretty perfunctory.

I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance who's junior officer in the Indonesian Air Force. He began talking about terrorists. He referred to them as "f*)_*^#" terrorists and made the point that they aren't true Muslims and that the Koran specifically prohibits murder. He became visibly angry, which seemed really out of character because he normally appears so mild-mannered.

It keeps striking me as ironic how--in the largest Muslim country--Christmas is so conspicuous. Most stores and malls look pretty much like their American counterparts this time of year. The Millenium Hotel in Jakarta had a 20-foot REAL Christmas tree, which they said they cut somewhere near Bogor (evergreen trees are fairly rare in Indonesia). Almost all the music you hear in the malls, etc., is Christmas music, and there are "Selamat Natal dan Tahun Baru" (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year) signs everywhere. All the TV stations are doing special holiday programming, and promo "greetings." I watched part of a Christmas special on Global TV. Production was extremely elaborate. I thought the dancing angels were a bit over the top, however. The show was all music except for an emotional, tearful remembrance of the tsunami victims. There were vocal soloists, choruses -- including children -- harpist, and orchestra. Some carols were in Indonesian, some in English.

However, almost all of the Christmas decoration, celebration, etc. is very commercial. You don't see homes decorated at all, and only occasionally will you see a tree in a window. These are Christian homes, I assume. There was a picture the other day in Jawa Pos of the security guards at the Hotel Mandarin Oriental in Surabaya, who were all wearing Santa suits. Also saw a picture of a mall in Semarang which has a huge Christmas tree made of doughnuts. But security is very tight. There was also a picture in the paper of security guards at a Catholic church, with a story about the double ring of security established at some churches.

The news on the big national stations (they aren't really networks, because there are no local affiliates) is pretty professional in terms of production. The other day the big story of the day was about a report from the Indonesia intelligence agency that there were threats to Pres. Bambang Susilo Yodoyono and his family. One report indicated that the terrorists (I'm not sure if this means globally or just those in Indonesia—I suspect the latter) are running out of money and have switched tactics to target prominent individuals rather than large-scale targets.

Local TV here in Lombok is really amateur, and seems to be struggling to survive (see separate message). The other night I watched "Nuansa Lombok," the Lombok TV newscast. It is a little "primitive." A single anchor sitting on a very simple and pretty ugly set (blue and pink). The reporting is hard to judge, due to the language problem, but it seems to be pretty shallow. Story structure is very formula, and the videography and editing is bad—poorly framed shots and jump cuts, repeated shots, etc. There is no humanization, lots of official soundbites and BOPSAT video. Every break contained the same three spots, one for a furniture/appliance store, one for a newspaper, and a promo.

The first three stories were about protests in Mataram, one protesting corruption, one some allegedly bogus educational institution, and one I don't remember. Protesting seems to be a popular pastime in Mataram, and there's apparently no suppression of free expression.

There was a story about the bust of a bootleg liquor operation of some kind, one about electrical generating capacity (a big issue, since blackouts are common, I'm told, though there has been none during my visit), and one about a child who died of a mosquito-borne disease (dengue fever, I believe). The story about the dead child contained video of the grieving family with the child's body. Showing dead bodies seems not to be a problem at all here. I've seen several.

(Explanatory note: Lombok is the island just east of Bali, which is just east of Java. Java is one of the larger islands with the largest population, site of Jakarta, the capital. Lombok has a pretty significant tourist industry, a lot of it "spillover" from Bali, I think. These days, tourism on both Bali and Lombok is really hurting due to the terrorist bombings in recent years, none of which has been on Lombok. Lombok has a population of a couple of million, most in the cities of Mataram, Cakranegara and Ampenon, which form a kind of "metroplex." It is not a large island, probably 40 miles in diameter—a little larger than Douglas County. Most notable feature is Mt. Rinjani, an active, but generally well-behaved volcano that is the third highest mountain in Indonesia. )