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Aug 13, 2010
Indonesian Cleric's Arrest Disrupts Radicalization in Southeast Asia
VOA
Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was arrested August 9 after a months-long investigation into a terrorist group calling itself al-Qaida in Aceh. Analysts say his arrest was more significant than just the disruption of a terrorist plot. It demonstrated, they say, a new emphasis by Indonesian authorities on preventing radicalization and terrorist recruitment in Southeast Asia.
Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was charged Wednesday with helping plan terrorist attacks in Indonesia. It is a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death. Police say he was involved in setting up a terrorist cell and militant training camp in Aceh Province that was plotting high-profile assassinations and attacks on foreigners in the capital.
Symbolic importance
But terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna with the Singapore-based Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies says Bashir's symbolic importance to the radical Islamic movement surpasses any operational role he may have played.
"Bashir remains a central figure in terrorism in Southeast Asia and globally," Gunaratna said. "He's the public face. He's the iconic figure when it comes to terrorism in Southeast Asia. There is no one who is more prominent than Abu Bakar Bashir in Southeast Asia."
Who is he?
The 71-year-old cleric is a co-founder and spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked terrorist network. Its purpose is to establish an Islamic caliphate extending over the Muslim areas of south-east Asia.
Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for a series of bombings that killed over 250 people in the last decade, including those on Bali in 2002 and 2005.
Bashir spent more than two years in prison for his involvement in the 2002 terrorist bombings on Bali that killed 202 people. The Indonesian Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 2006.
Bashir has denied any involvement in terrorism but he continues to speak out and founded a legal organization called Jama'ah Ansharut Tauhid or JAT that promotes the creation of an Islamic state in Indonesia. His arrest had been anticipated after several JAT members were arrested in May for allegedly funding terrorist activities in Aceh.
No mistakes
Security analyst Ken Conboy with Risk Management Advisory says police took its time collecting intelligence and evidence against Bashir so as not to repeat the mistakes they made the last time the arrested him.
"The government really blew the case against him," Conboy said. "They had him in prison. They couldn't make any of the bigger charges stick and even the charges they did eventually get, he was let free. So I think the government really stumbled the last time around and I am sure this time they were being very very methodical and making sure they had as tight as case as possible before they arrested him."
Bashir blames pressure from the United States and Australia for his arrest and some hardline Islamic organizations in Indonesia defend him as a victim of anti-Islamic forces.
Extensive influence
Gunaratna says Bashir's influence in radicalizing Muslims and recruiting terrorists extended throughout Southeast Asia. Malaysia recently arrested three suspected militants believed to have ties with the radical cleric.
And he says Bashir's arrest is a turning point for the region's war on terror. It shows that Indonesian authorities are now willing to go after ideological figures with significant public support that promote extremist causes.
"The president of Indonesia should be congratulated because previous presidents did not take the threat seriously," Gunaratna noted, "and certainly the government of Indonesia should send to prison not only those who are operational terrorists but ideological terrorists, people who write, who advocate and who support terrorism. And Abu Bakar Bashir belongs to all those categories."
But he says this new emphasis on cracking down on those propagating extremist messages is just beginning, and more must be done to prevent the radicalization of another generation of Muslims in Southeast Asia.
Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was arrested August 9 after a months-long investigation into a terrorist group calling itself al-Qaida in Aceh. Analysts say his arrest was more significant than just the disruption of a terrorist plot. It demonstrated, they say, a new emphasis by Indonesian authorities on preventing radicalization and terrorist recruitment in Southeast Asia.
Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was charged Wednesday with helping plan terrorist attacks in Indonesia. It is a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death. Police say he was involved in setting up a terrorist cell and militant training camp in Aceh Province that was plotting high-profile assassinations and attacks on foreigners in the capital.
Symbolic importance
But terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna with the Singapore-based Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies says Bashir's symbolic importance to the radical Islamic movement surpasses any operational role he may have played.
"Bashir remains a central figure in terrorism in Southeast Asia and globally," Gunaratna said. "He's the public face. He's the iconic figure when it comes to terrorism in Southeast Asia. There is no one who is more prominent than Abu Bakar Bashir in Southeast Asia."
Who is he?
The 71-year-old cleric is a co-founder and spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked terrorist network. Its purpose is to establish an Islamic caliphate extending over the Muslim areas of south-east Asia.
Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for a series of bombings that killed over 250 people in the last decade, including those on Bali in 2002 and 2005.
Bashir spent more than two years in prison for his involvement in the 2002 terrorist bombings on Bali that killed 202 people. The Indonesian Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 2006.
Bashir has denied any involvement in terrorism but he continues to speak out and founded a legal organization called Jama'ah Ansharut Tauhid or JAT that promotes the creation of an Islamic state in Indonesia. His arrest had been anticipated after several JAT members were arrested in May for allegedly funding terrorist activities in Aceh.
No mistakes
Security analyst Ken Conboy with Risk Management Advisory says police took its time collecting intelligence and evidence against Bashir so as not to repeat the mistakes they made the last time the arrested him.
"The government really blew the case against him," Conboy said. "They had him in prison. They couldn't make any of the bigger charges stick and even the charges they did eventually get, he was let free. So I think the government really stumbled the last time around and I am sure this time they were being very very methodical and making sure they had as tight as case as possible before they arrested him."
Bashir blames pressure from the United States and Australia for his arrest and some hardline Islamic organizations in Indonesia defend him as a victim of anti-Islamic forces.
Extensive influence
Gunaratna says Bashir's influence in radicalizing Muslims and recruiting terrorists extended throughout Southeast Asia. Malaysia recently arrested three suspected militants believed to have ties with the radical cleric.
And he says Bashir's arrest is a turning point for the region's war on terror. It shows that Indonesian authorities are now willing to go after ideological figures with significant public support that promote extremist causes.
"The president of Indonesia should be congratulated because previous presidents did not take the threat seriously," Gunaratna noted, "and certainly the government of Indonesia should send to prison not only those who are operational terrorists but ideological terrorists, people who write, who advocate and who support terrorism. And Abu Bakar Bashir belongs to all those categories."
But he says this new emphasis on cracking down on those propagating extremist messages is just beginning, and more must be done to prevent the radicalization of another generation of Muslims in Southeast Asia.
Publications of International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
Asian Literary Voices. From Marginal to Mainstream
Author(s): Philip F. Williams (ed)
ISBN: 978 90 8964 092 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 176
Price € 37,50
Tracks and Traces. Thailand and the Work of Andrew Turton
Author(s): Philip Hirsch & Nicholas Tapp (eds)
ISBN: 978 908 964 249 3
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 168
Price € 27,50
South Asian Partition Fiction in English. From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh
Author(s): Rituparna Roy
ISBN: 978 90 8964 245 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 180
Price € 27,50
Varieties of Religious Authority: Changes and Challenges in 20th Century Indonesian Islam
Author(s): Azyumardi Azra, Kees van Dijk, Nico J G Kaptein (eds)
ISBN: 978 981 230 940 2
Publisher: ISEAS/IIAS
Publication year: 2010
Pages 211
Price USD $39.90
State, Society and International Relations in Asia
Author(s): Mehdi Parvizi Amineh
ISBN: 978 90 5356 794 4
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 312
Price € 44,50
Frameworks of Choice. Predictive and Genetic Testing in Asia
Author(s): Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
ISBN: 978 90 8964 165 6
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 272
Price € 42,00
Asian Cross-border Marriage Migration. Demographic Patterns and Social Issues
Author(s): Wen-Shan Yang, Melody Chia-Wen Lu
ISBN: 978 90 8964 054 3
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 264
Price € 42,00
Modernization, Tradition and Identity. The Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts
Author(s): Euis Nurlaelawati
ISBN: 978 90 8964 088 8
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 296
Price € 42,00
China with a Cut. Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music
Author(s): Jeroen de Kloet
ISBN: 978 90 8964 162 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 264
Price € 42,00
Decentralization and Regional Autonomy in Indonesia: Implementation and Challenges
Author(s): Coen J G Holtzappel, Martin Ramstedt (eds)
ISBN: 978 981 230 820 7
Publisher: ISEAS Publications
Publication year: 2009
Pages 433
Price US$79.90
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
next ›
last »
Asian Literary Voices. From Marginal to Mainstream
Author(s): Philip F. Williams (ed)
ISBN: 978 90 8964 092 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 176
Price € 37,50
Tracks and Traces. Thailand and the Work of Andrew Turton
Author(s): Philip Hirsch & Nicholas Tapp (eds)
ISBN: 978 908 964 249 3
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 168
Price € 27,50
South Asian Partition Fiction in English. From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh
Author(s): Rituparna Roy
ISBN: 978 90 8964 245 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 180
Price € 27,50
Varieties of Religious Authority: Changes and Challenges in 20th Century Indonesian Islam
Author(s): Azyumardi Azra, Kees van Dijk, Nico J G Kaptein (eds)
ISBN: 978 981 230 940 2
Publisher: ISEAS/IIAS
Publication year: 2010
Pages 211
Price USD $39.90
State, Society and International Relations in Asia
Author(s): Mehdi Parvizi Amineh
ISBN: 978 90 5356 794 4
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 312
Price € 44,50
Frameworks of Choice. Predictive and Genetic Testing in Asia
Author(s): Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
ISBN: 978 90 8964 165 6
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 272
Price € 42,00
Asian Cross-border Marriage Migration. Demographic Patterns and Social Issues
Author(s): Wen-Shan Yang, Melody Chia-Wen Lu
ISBN: 978 90 8964 054 3
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 264
Price € 42,00
Modernization, Tradition and Identity. The Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts
Author(s): Euis Nurlaelawati
ISBN: 978 90 8964 088 8
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 296
Price € 42,00
China with a Cut. Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music
Author(s): Jeroen de Kloet
ISBN: 978 90 8964 162 5
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication year: 2010
Pages 264
Price € 42,00
Decentralization and Regional Autonomy in Indonesia: Implementation and Challenges
Author(s): Coen J G Holtzappel, Martin Ramstedt (eds)
ISBN: 978 981 230 820 7
Publisher: ISEAS Publications
Publication year: 2009
Pages 433
Price US$79.90
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
next ›
last »
Network of International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
International Institute for Asian Studies
ABIA
The ABIA project is a global network of scholars co-operating on an annotated bibliographic database covering South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology. http://www.abia.net
Asia Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA)
Asian Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA) is a joint endeavour of the University of Amsterdam and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). ASiA aims to promote and facilitate the study of Asia through academic research and the organising of outreach activities within the Amsterdam region. http://www.iias.nl/asia
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) was established in February 1997 under the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. ASEF seeks to promote mutual understanding, deeper engagement and continuing collaboration among the people of Asia and Europe through greater intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges between the two regions. http://www.asef.org
Asian Borderlands Research Network
The concerns of the Asian Borderlands Research Network are varied, ranging from migratory movements, transformations in cultural, linguistic and religious practices, to ethnic mobilization and conflict, marginalisation, and environmental concerns. Its aim is to generate new knowledge and methodologies for a better understanding of transitional zones and borderlands in general. http://www.asianborderlands.net
EASAS
The board of the EASAS consists of 12 elected and 3 coopted, in all 15 ordinary members, representing the various academic disciplines represented by the Association as well as the regional specialisations of the members. http://www.easas.org
ECARDC
The ECARDC Network (European Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development in China) was set up as an academic network to provide a forum to meet, discuss and share information and experiences about China's agricultural and rural development among scholars, development agencies, international donors, and professionals in development aid. http://www.ecardc.org
European Alliance For Asian Studies
The European Alliance for Asian Studies (Asia Alliance) is a co-operative framework of European institutes specializing in Asian Studies. http://www.asia-alliance.org
European Studies Programme at Delhi University
The European Studies Programme at Delhi University is framed keeping in mind certain aspects of the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology in particular and the social sciences in general in India. URL: http://www.europeanstudiesgroupdu.org/
ICAS
The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) is listed among the largest gatherings of research scholars from Centres on Asia and Asian studies, especially in the humanities and social science.
URL: http://www.icassecretariat.org
South Asian Studies Association (SASA)
The primary purposes for which SASA was organized are: to promote scholarly study of and public interest in South Asian civilizations and affairs; to provide a public forum for the communication of research and scholarship on South Asia, by means of an annual conference; to promote scholarship and networking opportunities for scholars of South Asia between annual conferences through electronic and other media; etc. See: http://www.sasia2.org
Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM)
33 museums from Asia and 38 from Europe have contributed approximately 1400 masterpieces to the Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM). This web-accessible selection of images and accompanying information on Asian masterpieces from Asian and European museums is a fantastic search tool for people from various levels interested in Asian art and cultural history. The VCM project promotes mutual understanding and appreciation between the peoples of Asia and Europe, specifically through the use of works of art and culture. URL: http://masterpieces.asemus.museum
ABIA
The ABIA project is a global network of scholars co-operating on an annotated bibliographic database covering South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology. http://www.abia.net
Asia Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA)
Asian Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA) is a joint endeavour of the University of Amsterdam and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). ASiA aims to promote and facilitate the study of Asia through academic research and the organising of outreach activities within the Amsterdam region. http://www.iias.nl/asia
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) was established in February 1997 under the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. ASEF seeks to promote mutual understanding, deeper engagement and continuing collaboration among the people of Asia and Europe through greater intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges between the two regions. http://www.asef.org
Asian Borderlands Research Network
The concerns of the Asian Borderlands Research Network are varied, ranging from migratory movements, transformations in cultural, linguistic and religious practices, to ethnic mobilization and conflict, marginalisation, and environmental concerns. Its aim is to generate new knowledge and methodologies for a better understanding of transitional zones and borderlands in general. http://www.asianborderlands.net
EASAS
The board of the EASAS consists of 12 elected and 3 coopted, in all 15 ordinary members, representing the various academic disciplines represented by the Association as well as the regional specialisations of the members. http://www.easas.org
ECARDC
The ECARDC Network (European Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development in China) was set up as an academic network to provide a forum to meet, discuss and share information and experiences about China's agricultural and rural development among scholars, development agencies, international donors, and professionals in development aid. http://www.ecardc.org
European Alliance For Asian Studies
The European Alliance for Asian Studies (Asia Alliance) is a co-operative framework of European institutes specializing in Asian Studies. http://www.asia-alliance.org
European Studies Programme at Delhi University
The European Studies Programme at Delhi University is framed keeping in mind certain aspects of the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology in particular and the social sciences in general in India. URL: http://www.europeanstudiesgroupdu.org/
ICAS
The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) is listed among the largest gatherings of research scholars from Centres on Asia and Asian studies, especially in the humanities and social science.
URL: http://www.icassecretariat.org
South Asian Studies Association (SASA)
The primary purposes for which SASA was organized are: to promote scholarly study of and public interest in South Asian civilizations and affairs; to provide a public forum for the communication of research and scholarship on South Asia, by means of an annual conference; to promote scholarship and networking opportunities for scholars of South Asia between annual conferences through electronic and other media; etc. See: http://www.sasia2.org
Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM)
33 museums from Asia and 38 from Europe have contributed approximately 1400 masterpieces to the Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM). This web-accessible selection of images and accompanying information on Asian masterpieces from Asian and European museums is a fantastic search tool for people from various levels interested in Asian art and cultural history. The VCM project promotes mutual understanding and appreciation between the peoples of Asia and Europe, specifically through the use of works of art and culture. URL: http://masterpieces.asemus.museum
Aug 11, 2010
Bloggers Fight for Freedom of Expression in Burma Election
Ramanya Palace
Blogs are an alternative source of independence news in Burma as all other media such as newspapers, radio, and TV are controlled by the military regime.
The bloggers gained international attention during the ‘Saffron Revolution’ against the government lead by the countries monks in 2007. Bloggers were the main source of news and uploaded video and images of the protest.
As our reporter Banyar Kong Janoi found out, the blogs are an important source of election news for young people inside Burma.
He spent two days with a renowned blogger inYangon.
An internet shop in Yangon is full of customers.
Most of them are young.
All though there is still no date for the election, there are many online forums with open heated debate about the poll.
University student, Mi Sike Ka-mar Chan, says she has learned a lot about the election online.
“2010 election is a heated issue in every blogs. On their discussion page, some people comment the election is good for people while others criticize. Some criticize the National League for Democracy Party not joining the election while others support them for boycotting it. There are a lot of blogs about Burma. We just read the ones that interest us. The blog suits Burmese people because they have a low bandwidth so we can open them easily.”
Another university student, Moe Kyaw, says blogs are his only source of information.
“I learnt from the blog about the 2010 election especially from the blogs which focus on politics. They post how to vote and they post the regulation of the election. By reading those posts we know the answers and we can say why we don’t agree with the election.”
The freeforcountry.tayzartay.com blogger is based in Rangoon.
He is calling for radical changes to the election process.
“We want to see an election of international standard. The government must change. We want a government who is truly elected by the people. We have lived under a military dictatorship since birth. Because of these we have to struggle to live. Compared to other countries we are behind because of the military leaders. That’s why we must follow other countries and lift the living standard of the people. We are fighting with our pen to explain to people from our blog.”
His blog became popular among young people inside Burma and gained an international audience after the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in 2007 when monks staged large street protests against the military regime in Burma.
The bloggers played a critical role by uploading images and telling the true story. In response the government cut internet access to the entire country.
A ‘Force for Country’ blogger explains how they avoid the government censorship.
“We need software, proxy numbers to pass through a banned server to login our blogs. The free proxy can be expired. So we share among our peers and we found new tech and proxy numbers that can pass the server to upload posts. We upload it in different internet cafés because if we upload at a permanent shop and post with a single IP, the authorities would know; they would come and arrest us. Typing in the house, we just upload the post in the shop within a minute. As soon as we have uploaded we leave.”
Shop owners are required to report customers who are looking at banned websites or sites that criticise the government.
They have been ordered by the government to check each user’s screen every 15 minutes to monitor their online activities.
On all the PCs in this internet café is a sign that reads: “You are not allowed to see political and pornography websites.”
Youtube, Google mail and Yahoo mail are blocked.
However many users are smart enough to surf banned websites through proxy servers.
But bloggers working inside the country do so at great risk.
28-year-old blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2008 for posting a cartoon of the military leader, Than Shwe.
‘Free for country’ bloggers says security is very important.
“We can’t just look at the screen; we always have to look around us and see who is looking at us. When we are uploading, we do not use a full screen. We use the “restore down” function- half screen. While we are uploading the post we pretend to be surfing other websites so people don’t pay attention to us.”
He says he takes the risks because it’s his responsibility as a citizen of Burma.
“I don’t get any support in the way of funds to operate this blog. I just save from my pocket money to use the Internet for uploading posts. I get technical help from my friends who are better with computers. We can present the true story. It’s incredible when we go on a field trip; we can upload pictures which tell the true current story. When people understand the situation and learn from our blog, we are happier than if we got paid for our work. I feel this job is important so I do it.”
He says he is very honest in his work.
“I am very concerned with accuracy. I go into the field to collect information. Although there is not a lot of news on my blog it’s more of a watchdog. I monitor the work of civil servants and government officials. If I get a new’s tip, I will investigate further before posting it and I will take photos.”
Back in the Rangoon internet café university student, Nai Rot Khine, says bloggers are a lifeline for her generation.
“As for me, reading blogs is very important. We can read different kinds of issues. We can read open discussion about the current politics so we can make ourselves rich in knowledge.”
Posted by kongjanoi
Blogs are an alternative source of independence news in Burma as all other media such as newspapers, radio, and TV are controlled by the military regime.
The bloggers gained international attention during the ‘Saffron Revolution’ against the government lead by the countries monks in 2007. Bloggers were the main source of news and uploaded video and images of the protest.
As our reporter Banyar Kong Janoi found out, the blogs are an important source of election news for young people inside Burma.
He spent two days with a renowned blogger inYangon.
An internet shop in Yangon is full of customers.
Most of them are young.
All though there is still no date for the election, there are many online forums with open heated debate about the poll.
University student, Mi Sike Ka-mar Chan, says she has learned a lot about the election online.
“2010 election is a heated issue in every blogs. On their discussion page, some people comment the election is good for people while others criticize. Some criticize the National League for Democracy Party not joining the election while others support them for boycotting it. There are a lot of blogs about Burma. We just read the ones that interest us. The blog suits Burmese people because they have a low bandwidth so we can open them easily.”
Another university student, Moe Kyaw, says blogs are his only source of information.
“I learnt from the blog about the 2010 election especially from the blogs which focus on politics. They post how to vote and they post the regulation of the election. By reading those posts we know the answers and we can say why we don’t agree with the election.”
The freeforcountry.tayzartay.com blogger is based in Rangoon.
He is calling for radical changes to the election process.
“We want to see an election of international standard. The government must change. We want a government who is truly elected by the people. We have lived under a military dictatorship since birth. Because of these we have to struggle to live. Compared to other countries we are behind because of the military leaders. That’s why we must follow other countries and lift the living standard of the people. We are fighting with our pen to explain to people from our blog.”
His blog became popular among young people inside Burma and gained an international audience after the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in 2007 when monks staged large street protests against the military regime in Burma.
The bloggers played a critical role by uploading images and telling the true story. In response the government cut internet access to the entire country.
A ‘Force for Country’ blogger explains how they avoid the government censorship.
“We need software, proxy numbers to pass through a banned server to login our blogs. The free proxy can be expired. So we share among our peers and we found new tech and proxy numbers that can pass the server to upload posts. We upload it in different internet cafés because if we upload at a permanent shop and post with a single IP, the authorities would know; they would come and arrest us. Typing in the house, we just upload the post in the shop within a minute. As soon as we have uploaded we leave.”
Shop owners are required to report customers who are looking at banned websites or sites that criticise the government.
They have been ordered by the government to check each user’s screen every 15 minutes to monitor their online activities.
On all the PCs in this internet café is a sign that reads: “You are not allowed to see political and pornography websites.”
Youtube, Google mail and Yahoo mail are blocked.
However many users are smart enough to surf banned websites through proxy servers.
But bloggers working inside the country do so at great risk.
28-year-old blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2008 for posting a cartoon of the military leader, Than Shwe.
‘Free for country’ bloggers says security is very important.
“We can’t just look at the screen; we always have to look around us and see who is looking at us. When we are uploading, we do not use a full screen. We use the “restore down” function- half screen. While we are uploading the post we pretend to be surfing other websites so people don’t pay attention to us.”
He says he takes the risks because it’s his responsibility as a citizen of Burma.
“I don’t get any support in the way of funds to operate this blog. I just save from my pocket money to use the Internet for uploading posts. I get technical help from my friends who are better with computers. We can present the true story. It’s incredible when we go on a field trip; we can upload pictures which tell the true current story. When people understand the situation and learn from our blog, we are happier than if we got paid for our work. I feel this job is important so I do it.”
He says he is very honest in his work.
“I am very concerned with accuracy. I go into the field to collect information. Although there is not a lot of news on my blog it’s more of a watchdog. I monitor the work of civil servants and government officials. If I get a new’s tip, I will investigate further before posting it and I will take photos.”
Back in the Rangoon internet café university student, Nai Rot Khine, says bloggers are a lifeline for her generation.
“As for me, reading blogs is very important. We can read different kinds of issues. We can read open discussion about the current politics so we can make ourselves rich in knowledge.”
Posted by kongjanoi
Thailand to indict top Red Shirts for terrorism
AFP
Aug 11, 2010
Red Shirt chairman Veera Musikapong is one of three key protest leaders to be indicted
BANGKOK — Thai prosecutors said Wednesday they would indict 19 leaders and supporters of the anti-government "Red Shirt" movement on terrorism charges in connection with recent political unrest.
They include three key protest leaders -- Red Shirt chairman Veera Musikapong, opposition lawmaker Jatuporn Prompan and Kokaew Pikulthong, who stood as an opposition candidate in a recent Bangkok by-election.
The suspects have already been arrested and charged and many have been held in detention for almost three months.
"Evidence from investigators shows that there are sufficient grounds to indict the suspects on terrorism charges," the Office of Attorney General said in a statement.
The Red Shirts' lawyer, Karom Poltaklang, said he was confident the suspects would be proven innocent.
Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will indict fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who faces an arrest warrant for terrorism but lives in self-imposed exile overseas.
Two months of protests by the Red Shirts, aimed at forcing immediate elections, triggered a series of clashes between demonstrators and troops that left at least 90 people dead -- mostly civilians -- and nearly 1,900 injured.
Most top Red Shirts surrendered to police after the army launched a deadly assault on the movement's fortified encampment in the heart of Bangkok on May 19.
Some others are in hiding, including Arisman Pongruangrong, who led the storming of an Asian summit in the Thai resort of Pattaya in 2009.
After the May crackdown, Reds leaders asked their thousands of supporters to disperse, but enraged protesters went on a rampage of arson, setting fire to dozens of buildings, including a shopping mall and the stock exchange.
Thailand's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Thaksin and his family against the seizure of 1.4 billion dollars of their assets in February for abuse of power.
Aug 11, 2010
BANGKOK — Thai prosecutors said Wednesday they would indict 19 leaders and supporters of the anti-government "Red Shirt" movement on terrorism charges in connection with recent political unrest.
They include three key protest leaders -- Red Shirt chairman Veera Musikapong, opposition lawmaker Jatuporn Prompan and Kokaew Pikulthong, who stood as an opposition candidate in a recent Bangkok by-election.
The suspects have already been arrested and charged and many have been held in detention for almost three months.
"Evidence from investigators shows that there are sufficient grounds to indict the suspects on terrorism charges," the Office of Attorney General said in a statement.
The Red Shirts' lawyer, Karom Poltaklang, said he was confident the suspects would be proven innocent.
Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will indict fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who faces an arrest warrant for terrorism but lives in self-imposed exile overseas.
Two months of protests by the Red Shirts, aimed at forcing immediate elections, triggered a series of clashes between demonstrators and troops that left at least 90 people dead -- mostly civilians -- and nearly 1,900 injured.
Most top Red Shirts surrendered to police after the army launched a deadly assault on the movement's fortified encampment in the heart of Bangkok on May 19.
Some others are in hiding, including Arisman Pongruangrong, who led the storming of an Asian summit in the Thai resort of Pattaya in 2009.
After the May crackdown, Reds leaders asked their thousands of supporters to disperse, but enraged protesters went on a rampage of arson, setting fire to dozens of buildings, including a shopping mall and the stock exchange.
Thailand's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Thaksin and his family against the seizure of 1.4 billion dollars of their assets in February for abuse of power.
Internet is Latest Battleground in Thailand's Heated Political Landscape
VOA
The Internet is the latest battleground in Thailand's stormy political climate as the government attempts to shut down Web sites critical of it and the monarchy. The government is using tough laws to silence online criticism, but net users are finding ways to be heard.
During months of political protests earlier this year, the Thai government shut down thousands of Web sites it said fanned the protests or criticized the royal family.
May protests
The protests, which left 90 people dead and more than 1,400 injured, ended on May 19 when the army dispersed the crowds.
But the battle over the Internet continues.
Internet crackdown
Using the Computer Crimes Act and an emergency decree, the government shuts sites it thinks support the red-shirt protest movement. Media rights groups say more than 50,000 Web sites have been closed.
Chiranuch Premchaiporn is a director with Prachatai.com, an on-line news site the government shut down in April. A big concern for the government apparently was the site's discussion boards.
She says Prachatai shut the discussion board in July. Chiranuch faces charges under the Computer Crimes Act and if convicted could go to jail.
"Even I believe in the freedom of expression or free speech but I understand some limitation and we also set up a kind of system to moderate some content that can be considered violate the rights of the people or violate the law," Chiranuch said.
Government position
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanaygorn defends the Internet censorship policy.
"The situation under the emergency decree is very different," said Panitan. "On one hand we still keep the freedom of the media. But on the other hand we do look into certain messages that create tension, confrontation and push people to confront among one another and that activity is monitored."
A decade ago, it was easier for the government to control the media. TV and radio have long been state-controlled.
And newspapers faced attacks during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration earlier in this decade.
Tough to control
Chris Baker, an author and political analyst on Thailand, says new technologies are harder to control.
"In the past the government was able to control all broadcast media very closely and generally could influence the press," Baker said. "But that situation has totally changed with cable and satellite TV spinning out of control, community radio and the whole Internet as well."
Prachatai.com is an example of that. Pinpaka Ngamson, an editor for the site, says the government could only shut it temporarily.
"Now it's not difficult for us to work anymore, we know how to cope with this kind of order from the government," said Pinpaka. "We just change our server and use another URL [Uniform Resource Locator] and go on with our work."
Media plea
Thai media commentators have called on the government to rethink on-line censorship. They say it reinforces international opinion that Thailand's media is increasingly less free.
Supinya Klanarong, a media activist, says the Computer Crimes Act is applied too broadly beyond insults against the royal family. Supinya says more media restrictions have emerged since the anti-government protests ended in May.
"It means a general opposition Web site related to the red-shirt movement or the critics of the government are also being blocked as concern for national security, too," Supinya said. "So it's not only about the issue related to les majeste but is also about political Web site in general, especially the dissident point of and the opposition."
Some of the concerns appear to have been heard.
Improvements
Government leaders say they hope to improve draft legislation on the Internet laws.
Panitan, the government spokesman, says the there is a need to balance security and Internet freedom.
"On the one hand we regulate these activities in such a way that it's not going to harm our national interests," Panitan added. "Specific activities may not be allowed to be in those Web sites. But on the other hand we want to keep other communications open."
But media groups such as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance say the government has been intimidating Web users who engage in "sensitive political discussion". The group warns that shutting down Web sites may backfire and lead to the radicalization of those who post political comments on-line.
During months of political protests earlier this year, the Thai government shut down thousands of Web sites it said fanned the protests or criticized the royal family.
May protests
The protests, which left 90 people dead and more than 1,400 injured, ended on May 19 when the army dispersed the crowds.
But the battle over the Internet continues.
Internet crackdown
Using the Computer Crimes Act and an emergency decree, the government shuts sites it thinks support the red-shirt protest movement. Media rights groups say more than 50,000 Web sites have been closed.
Chiranuch Premchaiporn is a director with Prachatai.com, an on-line news site the government shut down in April. A big concern for the government apparently was the site's discussion boards.
She says Prachatai shut the discussion board in July. Chiranuch faces charges under the Computer Crimes Act and if convicted could go to jail.
"Even I believe in the freedom of expression or free speech but I understand some limitation and we also set up a kind of system to moderate some content that can be considered violate the rights of the people or violate the law," Chiranuch said.
Government position
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanaygorn defends the Internet censorship policy.
"The situation under the emergency decree is very different," said Panitan. "On one hand we still keep the freedom of the media. But on the other hand we do look into certain messages that create tension, confrontation and push people to confront among one another and that activity is monitored."
A decade ago, it was easier for the government to control the media. TV and radio have long been state-controlled.
And newspapers faced attacks during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration earlier in this decade.
Tough to control
Chris Baker, an author and political analyst on Thailand, says new technologies are harder to control.
"In the past the government was able to control all broadcast media very closely and generally could influence the press," Baker said. "But that situation has totally changed with cable and satellite TV spinning out of control, community radio and the whole Internet as well."
Prachatai.com is an example of that. Pinpaka Ngamson, an editor for the site, says the government could only shut it temporarily.
"Now it's not difficult for us to work anymore, we know how to cope with this kind of order from the government," said Pinpaka. "We just change our server and use another URL [Uniform Resource Locator] and go on with our work."
Media plea
Thai media commentators have called on the government to rethink on-line censorship. They say it reinforces international opinion that Thailand's media is increasingly less free.
Supinya Klanarong, a media activist, says the Computer Crimes Act is applied too broadly beyond insults against the royal family. Supinya says more media restrictions have emerged since the anti-government protests ended in May.
"It means a general opposition Web site related to the red-shirt movement or the critics of the government are also being blocked as concern for national security, too," Supinya said. "So it's not only about the issue related to les majeste but is also about political Web site in general, especially the dissident point of and the opposition."
Some of the concerns appear to have been heard.
Improvements
Government leaders say they hope to improve draft legislation on the Internet laws.
Panitan, the government spokesman, says the there is a need to balance security and Internet freedom.
"On the one hand we regulate these activities in such a way that it's not going to harm our national interests," Panitan added. "Specific activities may not be allowed to be in those Web sites. But on the other hand we want to keep other communications open."
But media groups such as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance say the government has been intimidating Web users who engage in "sensitive political discussion". The group warns that shutting down Web sites may backfire and lead to the radicalization of those who post political comments on-line.
Aug 9, 2010
New Asean Chair in 2011 Raises Expectations
Image via Wikipedia| By SAW YAN NAING | Monday, August 9, 2010 |
JAKARTA—Indonesia will take over the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2011, and many observers have high expectations from the region's largest democracy.
Some believe that Indonesia will be a good Asean chair because the nation is now viewed by many to be a model country as a defender of human rights within the Asean grouping.
Thung Ju Lan, a professor at the Research Center for Society and Culture in the Indonesia Institute of Science, told The Irrawaddy in Jakarta that Indonesia can be a catalyst to find a common platform for the rest of Asean members, especially in regard to Burma improving its human rights record.
Sources within Asean in Bangkok also told The Irrawaddy that when Indonesia becomes Asean chair, it may actively pressure the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to push Burma to improve its human rights record and t0 work harder on democratic reform.
During the Asean summit in Hanoi last month, Asean Deputy Secretary-General Bagas Hapsoro told the Jakarta Post that he wished to see Jakarta become the “Brussels of the East,” increasing in power and relevance under the 2008 Asean Charter.
“There will be a lot of meetings, not only in Jakarta but also in other cities,” said Bagas, when Indonesia becomes the host of Asean.
Some believe that Indonesia’s role is set to increase further, becoming a regional center for economic and diplomatic activity, since the Asean office is based in Jakarta.
Other observers, however, have raised concerns about the expectations of the secretariat’s capability to facilitate the bloc’s vision of making Asean states a fully integrated community by 2015.
Addressing the issue of multi-cultural differences and the various needs of ethnic minorities, Thung Ju Lan, said, "The first thing we need is to try to understand the differences and respect them."
Some observers also noted that Asean's core principle of non-interference in a member country's internal affairs is a de facto Asean element that has been used by the Burmese military regime since 1962 to avoid censure and deflect criticism.
Anggara, who uses one name, a humarn rights advocate and lawyer who is executive director of the Indonesian Advocates Association in Jakarta, told The Irrawaddy that his country needed to somehow redefine the non-interference principle in order to promote human rights more effectively.
At the recent 16th Asean summit in Hanoi, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the bloc wanted very much to see the Burmese election attain international recognition and credibility.
In March 2010, during his visit to Burma, Marty Natalegawa told his Burmese counterpart, Nyan Win, in Naypyidaw that Jakarta expected the regime to “uphold its commitment to have an election that allows all parties to take part.”
Some observers have said change will come slowly in Burma and it will come from within despite the Burmese military regime's suppression of democracy.
An Indonesian human rights defender, Rafendi Djamin, who is a representative of Indonesia to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), said Burma's future is not guaranteed to improve after its planned election.
“There will be a lot of risk,” he said. “ And the country will have to find a way to deal with difficult situations. The more repressive the regime is, the more you need smart people to be able to sustain the [democracy] movement.”
Supporting syariah, advancing women
Inside Indonesia
Umi Rahimum at her dayah
David Kloos
In Aceh, a special formulation of Islamic law, the qanun, was implemented in 2003, and ever since, national and international media covering Aceh have been obsessed with it. Although this interest is perhaps understandable, it also results in distorted, incomplete, and sometimes false portrayals of local dynamics.
The issue of gender equality is a case in point. Media claiming to present a balanced view of current events in Aceh often concentrate on the public debate between fierce defenders of Islamic law on the one hand, and Aceh’s critical, visible and eloquent women’s rights movement on the other. While locating and portraying this debate is itself laudable (most media reports do not even reach this degree of sensitivity), what also happens is that the broader struggle for gender equality is equated with the debate about syariah. But in reality, this struggle takes multiple forms.
Umi Rahimun’s story
It is possible to illustrate this point by narrating, in very broad strokes, the life, work, and ideas of Umi Rahimun, a female religious teacher who lives in a rural area just outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. Umi Rahimun (the address umi, or umm, means ‘mother’ in Arabic) is the leader of a dayah – a traditional Islamic school – that she founded in 2001.
The vast majority of the boys and girls attending her school, of which there are well over 300, are of primary school age. They go to ‘ordinary’ (secular) school in the morning, and in the afternoon they go to Rahimun’s school. There they are taught elementary religious knowledge and skills, such as reading and reciting the Quran. In the evening a new group of around 60 older students arrives to study more advanced subjects, such as Quranic interpretation, Islamic jurisprudence, and mysticism.
Rahimun was born in 1968 in a well-to-do family in Banda Aceh. Her father, after a short military career, had been a prosperous textile trader. However, in the 1970s the family became impoverished, and her childhood was characterised by economic hardship, the divorce of her parents, and the death of her mother when she was 14 years old. While it had been Rahimun’s childhood dream to become a teacher, after she finished high school her family was too poor for her to enrol in teachers college. Instead, she decided to pursue her studies in a dayah. First she studied for two years in Samalanga in North Aceh. After that she moved to one of the largest and most prestigious dayah in Aceh, the Dayah Darussalam in South Aceh, where she spent six years.
Rahimun came back to Banda Aceh in 1996, immediately after the death of her father. Although by that time she was 27 years old, she decided that it was still too early to find a job or get married. Instead, she enrolled in the state Islamic university, a somewhat unusual move for an alumnus of a traditional dayah. By then, she was able to make a living teaching private religious lessons to children of wealthy families.
When she graduated in 2003, she had already established her own school in a village where her family owned some land. At the time, the armed conflict in Aceh between the Acehnese separatist movement and the Indonesian army had escalated, and Rahimun’s older sister especially objected to the idea of a woman going to live alone in a rural area at a time of civil war. But Rahimun pushed through, and assisted by a former classmate from the university, whom she married in 2004, she eventually made her school into the successful institution it is today.
Education and ambition
In recalling her life story, Umi Rahimun speaks proudly about the way she was able to combine ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ education, each with its particular virtues. At the same time, she criticises the division between secular and religious schools as unnatural, and a product of Dutch colonialism. Although she shares this view with many other ulama (religious scholars), she also explicitly acts on it.
While teaching a religious curriculum, she tries to avoid the normative, black and white (halal versus haram, or allowed versus forbidden) view of the world encountered in many dayah. In her view, a narrow focus on personal worship and rules of behaviour does not offer enough preparation to help solve today’s big problems, such as pollution, war, or corruption. She regards such issues equally as ‘moral’ problems, and actively discusses them in her lessons. In addition, she encourages her students to search for knowledge elsewhere. In fact, most of her evening students also study at the Islamic university or the (secular) Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.
Learning the basics: day students study how to recite the Quran
David Kloos
Seeking knowledge beyond the dayah is crucial, she believes, because the centuries-old religious treatises making up the dayah curriculum ‘tell you nothing about climate change or the hole in the ozone layer’.
Umi Rahimun also urges her female students to learn about Islam while ‘becoming doctors and scientists’. She blames culturally defined patriarchal relations (not Islam) for the subordinate role of women in Acehnese society: ‘Islam does not forbid women to work outside the household, and women in Aceh have always done so. In fact, there is no difference between working on a rice field and working in an office, but there is still a lack of understanding in our culture, which makes some men claim that women cannot work as teachers or in offices. This needs to be changed.'
In this respect Umi Rahimun explicitly thinks of herself as part of the Acehnese women’s rights movement. But this does not mean she merely criticises ‘men’ or ‘culture’. She argues that Acehnese women should also raise their own expectations and ambitions. In engaging with her female students, she keeps repeating that they ‘should not be fearful, not let themselves be restricted, and become smart and eloquent’. This is especially important, says Umi Rahimun, if they want to help restore the existing imbalance in Aceh between men and women in important leadership positions. ‘According to Islam, the husband leads his wife. But this goes only for the household. Outside the household women are equal to men and may take up positions according to their capabilities. So why then, if I enter the Office for Religious Affairs in Banda Aceh, and I look at the leadership chart on the wall, do I only see the faces of men?’
Umi Rahimum argues that Acehnese women should also raise their own expectations and ambitions. In engaging with her female students, she keeps repeating that they ‘should not be fearful, not let themselves be restricted, and become smart and eloquent’
While the school is Rahimun’s most important platform, another activity into which she weaves her activist agenda is teaching Islam to adult women at weekly classes in various locations. She told me that, at first, she became anxious if her students’ questions strayed far from the topics which are central to the centuries-old texts that are the foundation of teaching and discussion in a dayah. Such topics might include proper practices of worship, marriage, or inheritance. However, over the course of years she has become more confident about discussing contemporary issues and problems. Nowadays, she discusses topics such as divorce, domestic violence, sexuality and reproductive health or sexually transmitted diseases (like HIV/AIDS), if possible relating solutions to examples drawn from the old texts.
Doing so is sometimes difficult. The treatises normally used in the dayah are notoriously patriarchal and male-centred. At the same time, she is not confined to them either. When her adult students ask her whether Islam allows them to demand help from their husbands in the household, she uses the well known story of the Prophet Muhammad sewing his own clothes to show that it is perfectly right to ask for help, or even obligatory. As for more fraught subjects, such as domestic violence and the right to divorce, it is sometimes necessary to move straight to the Quran. Thus, she urges women to read the phrases in the Quran about the rights of women, asking them rhetorically, ‘how can men be able to lead their families when they cannot act morally themselves?’
Thinking about gender
Umi Rahimun traces her ideas about gender relations and the education of women to several influences. She mentions both her parents: her father who, employing the vocabulary of an army veteran, had always encouraged her to be ‘strong and brave’, to ‘struggle’, and even to become a ‘patriot’ and a ‘hero’; and her mother, who, even though working as a housewife, was always busy teaching other women in her neighbourhood how to cook, sew, and manage a household.
Umi Rahimum and her staff
David Kloos
Another important influence was her teacher in Labuhan Haji, the dayah where she spent six years (including three as a teacher). Her teacher had been ‘less narrow-minded’ than most ulama, often telling his students to pursue knowledge outside the confines of the dayah. Today, her main influence is an altogether different source, namely the connections she forges with various women’s organisations and activists in Banda Aceh, which help her to increase her vocabulary about women’s rights and stiffen her determination to improve the position of women. Finally, in conversations she always stresses her own personal struggle to overcome hardships as a crucial inspiration.
Of course, all of this does not necessarily mean that Umi Rahimun is morally less conservative than many of her male colleagues. For example, when talking to her students about sexuality, she will just as readily discuss the necessity to cover their body as she will the issue of women’s rights. And while she disseminates knowledge about HIV, she also connects the spread of the virus to what she thinks of as morally reprehensible acts like adultery and prostitution, emphasising the necessity of an ‘ethical life’ and ‘control of desire’. She is against abortion, even in the case of rape, because it is ‘prohibited by Islam’. But at the same time she underlines that young boys especially should be educated about such matters, arguing that, in the case of rape, it is men – not women – who act immorally.
Syariah is not the point
Coming back again to the issue of syariah, it may not be surprising that Umi Rahimun supports its implementation in Aceh. However, her support does not mean that she is not critical of its application. Like many other Acehnese, she complains that the way Islamic law is now implemented punishes the behaviour of women rather than men, and ordinary people rather than the elite. Thus she questions politicians’ and administrators’ zealousness in patrolling headscarves and tight pants, ‘while not doing anything about the drunks and gangsters harassing women and men in bus terminals’. Their one-sided view, she suspects, probably has more to do with increasing their own power and visibility than with the moral uplifting of Acehnese society.
But this is not really the point I want to make here. In fact, Umi Rahimun’s story has little to do with syariah. Yet it has everything to do with changing gender relations and the practices that evolve from them. In her lessons she discusses the importance of moral behaviour, but also the lack of women in leadership structures, and how to remedy this situation. Her mission is for Acehnese women to become trained, disciplined, knowledgeable, and therefore ready to be amongst Aceh’s future leaders.
It is true that most leaders and students of the Acehnese dayah, including women, are supporters of the new syariah laws. However, this does not automatically mean that these women cannot also be agents in the female struggle for gender equality. Umi Rahimun’s story shows that to understand the struggle for women’s rights in Aceh one must look beyond the division between conservative patriarchal male leaders on the one hand, and urban, progressive, middle-class female activists on the other. The picture that results may be more ambivalent, but it is also more realistic.
David Kloos (d.kloos@let.vu.nl) is a PhD candidate at the History department of the VU University, Amsterdam (The Netherlands). He is currently conducting research on Islamic education and everyday Islam in Aceh.
The life and work of an Islamic teacher in Aceh shows that the struggle for gender equality is about much more than syariah.
David Kloos Umi Rahimum at her dayah
David Kloos
In Aceh, a special formulation of Islamic law, the qanun, was implemented in 2003, and ever since, national and international media covering Aceh have been obsessed with it. Although this interest is perhaps understandable, it also results in distorted, incomplete, and sometimes false portrayals of local dynamics.
The issue of gender equality is a case in point. Media claiming to present a balanced view of current events in Aceh often concentrate on the public debate between fierce defenders of Islamic law on the one hand, and Aceh’s critical, visible and eloquent women’s rights movement on the other. While locating and portraying this debate is itself laudable (most media reports do not even reach this degree of sensitivity), what also happens is that the broader struggle for gender equality is equated with the debate about syariah. But in reality, this struggle takes multiple forms.
Umi Rahimun’s story
It is possible to illustrate this point by narrating, in very broad strokes, the life, work, and ideas of Umi Rahimun, a female religious teacher who lives in a rural area just outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. Umi Rahimun (the address umi, or umm, means ‘mother’ in Arabic) is the leader of a dayah – a traditional Islamic school – that she founded in 2001.
The vast majority of the boys and girls attending her school, of which there are well over 300, are of primary school age. They go to ‘ordinary’ (secular) school in the morning, and in the afternoon they go to Rahimun’s school. There they are taught elementary religious knowledge and skills, such as reading and reciting the Quran. In the evening a new group of around 60 older students arrives to study more advanced subjects, such as Quranic interpretation, Islamic jurisprudence, and mysticism.
Rahimun was born in 1968 in a well-to-do family in Banda Aceh. Her father, after a short military career, had been a prosperous textile trader. However, in the 1970s the family became impoverished, and her childhood was characterised by economic hardship, the divorce of her parents, and the death of her mother when she was 14 years old. While it had been Rahimun’s childhood dream to become a teacher, after she finished high school her family was too poor for her to enrol in teachers college. Instead, she decided to pursue her studies in a dayah. First she studied for two years in Samalanga in North Aceh. After that she moved to one of the largest and most prestigious dayah in Aceh, the Dayah Darussalam in South Aceh, where she spent six years.
Rahimun came back to Banda Aceh in 1996, immediately after the death of her father. Although by that time she was 27 years old, she decided that it was still too early to find a job or get married. Instead, she enrolled in the state Islamic university, a somewhat unusual move for an alumnus of a traditional dayah. By then, she was able to make a living teaching private religious lessons to children of wealthy families.
When she graduated in 2003, she had already established her own school in a village where her family owned some land. At the time, the armed conflict in Aceh between the Acehnese separatist movement and the Indonesian army had escalated, and Rahimun’s older sister especially objected to the idea of a woman going to live alone in a rural area at a time of civil war. But Rahimun pushed through, and assisted by a former classmate from the university, whom she married in 2004, she eventually made her school into the successful institution it is today.
Education and ambition
In recalling her life story, Umi Rahimun speaks proudly about the way she was able to combine ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ education, each with its particular virtues. At the same time, she criticises the division between secular and religious schools as unnatural, and a product of Dutch colonialism. Although she shares this view with many other ulama (religious scholars), she also explicitly acts on it.
While teaching a religious curriculum, she tries to avoid the normative, black and white (halal versus haram, or allowed versus forbidden) view of the world encountered in many dayah. In her view, a narrow focus on personal worship and rules of behaviour does not offer enough preparation to help solve today’s big problems, such as pollution, war, or corruption. She regards such issues equally as ‘moral’ problems, and actively discusses them in her lessons. In addition, she encourages her students to search for knowledge elsewhere. In fact, most of her evening students also study at the Islamic university or the (secular) Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.
Learning the basics: day students study how to recite the Quran
David Kloos
Seeking knowledge beyond the dayah is crucial, she believes, because the centuries-old religious treatises making up the dayah curriculum ‘tell you nothing about climate change or the hole in the ozone layer’.
Umi Rahimun also urges her female students to learn about Islam while ‘becoming doctors and scientists’. She blames culturally defined patriarchal relations (not Islam) for the subordinate role of women in Acehnese society: ‘Islam does not forbid women to work outside the household, and women in Aceh have always done so. In fact, there is no difference between working on a rice field and working in an office, but there is still a lack of understanding in our culture, which makes some men claim that women cannot work as teachers or in offices. This needs to be changed.'
In this respect Umi Rahimun explicitly thinks of herself as part of the Acehnese women’s rights movement. But this does not mean she merely criticises ‘men’ or ‘culture’. She argues that Acehnese women should also raise their own expectations and ambitions. In engaging with her female students, she keeps repeating that they ‘should not be fearful, not let themselves be restricted, and become smart and eloquent’. This is especially important, says Umi Rahimun, if they want to help restore the existing imbalance in Aceh between men and women in important leadership positions. ‘According to Islam, the husband leads his wife. But this goes only for the household. Outside the household women are equal to men and may take up positions according to their capabilities. So why then, if I enter the Office for Religious Affairs in Banda Aceh, and I look at the leadership chart on the wall, do I only see the faces of men?’
Umi Rahimum argues that Acehnese women should also raise their own expectations and ambitions. In engaging with her female students, she keeps repeating that they ‘should not be fearful, not let themselves be restricted, and become smart and eloquent’
While the school is Rahimun’s most important platform, another activity into which she weaves her activist agenda is teaching Islam to adult women at weekly classes in various locations. She told me that, at first, she became anxious if her students’ questions strayed far from the topics which are central to the centuries-old texts that are the foundation of teaching and discussion in a dayah. Such topics might include proper practices of worship, marriage, or inheritance. However, over the course of years she has become more confident about discussing contemporary issues and problems. Nowadays, she discusses topics such as divorce, domestic violence, sexuality and reproductive health or sexually transmitted diseases (like HIV/AIDS), if possible relating solutions to examples drawn from the old texts.
Doing so is sometimes difficult. The treatises normally used in the dayah are notoriously patriarchal and male-centred. At the same time, she is not confined to them either. When her adult students ask her whether Islam allows them to demand help from their husbands in the household, she uses the well known story of the Prophet Muhammad sewing his own clothes to show that it is perfectly right to ask for help, or even obligatory. As for more fraught subjects, such as domestic violence and the right to divorce, it is sometimes necessary to move straight to the Quran. Thus, she urges women to read the phrases in the Quran about the rights of women, asking them rhetorically, ‘how can men be able to lead their families when they cannot act morally themselves?’
Thinking about gender
Umi Rahimun traces her ideas about gender relations and the education of women to several influences. She mentions both her parents: her father who, employing the vocabulary of an army veteran, had always encouraged her to be ‘strong and brave’, to ‘struggle’, and even to become a ‘patriot’ and a ‘hero’; and her mother, who, even though working as a housewife, was always busy teaching other women in her neighbourhood how to cook, sew, and manage a household.
Umi Rahimum and her staff
David Kloos
Another important influence was her teacher in Labuhan Haji, the dayah where she spent six years (including three as a teacher). Her teacher had been ‘less narrow-minded’ than most ulama, often telling his students to pursue knowledge outside the confines of the dayah. Today, her main influence is an altogether different source, namely the connections she forges with various women’s organisations and activists in Banda Aceh, which help her to increase her vocabulary about women’s rights and stiffen her determination to improve the position of women. Finally, in conversations she always stresses her own personal struggle to overcome hardships as a crucial inspiration.
Of course, all of this does not necessarily mean that Umi Rahimun is morally less conservative than many of her male colleagues. For example, when talking to her students about sexuality, she will just as readily discuss the necessity to cover their body as she will the issue of women’s rights. And while she disseminates knowledge about HIV, she also connects the spread of the virus to what she thinks of as morally reprehensible acts like adultery and prostitution, emphasising the necessity of an ‘ethical life’ and ‘control of desire’. She is against abortion, even in the case of rape, because it is ‘prohibited by Islam’. But at the same time she underlines that young boys especially should be educated about such matters, arguing that, in the case of rape, it is men – not women – who act immorally.
Syariah is not the point
Coming back again to the issue of syariah, it may not be surprising that Umi Rahimun supports its implementation in Aceh. However, her support does not mean that she is not critical of its application. Like many other Acehnese, she complains that the way Islamic law is now implemented punishes the behaviour of women rather than men, and ordinary people rather than the elite. Thus she questions politicians’ and administrators’ zealousness in patrolling headscarves and tight pants, ‘while not doing anything about the drunks and gangsters harassing women and men in bus terminals’. Their one-sided view, she suspects, probably has more to do with increasing their own power and visibility than with the moral uplifting of Acehnese society.
But this is not really the point I want to make here. In fact, Umi Rahimun’s story has little to do with syariah. Yet it has everything to do with changing gender relations and the practices that evolve from them. In her lessons she discusses the importance of moral behaviour, but also the lack of women in leadership structures, and how to remedy this situation. Her mission is for Acehnese women to become trained, disciplined, knowledgeable, and therefore ready to be amongst Aceh’s future leaders.
It is true that most leaders and students of the Acehnese dayah, including women, are supporters of the new syariah laws. However, this does not automatically mean that these women cannot also be agents in the female struggle for gender equality. Umi Rahimun’s story shows that to understand the struggle for women’s rights in Aceh one must look beyond the division between conservative patriarchal male leaders on the one hand, and urban, progressive, middle-class female activists on the other. The picture that results may be more ambivalent, but it is also more realistic.
David Kloos (d.kloos@let.vu.nl) is a PhD candidate at the History department of the VU University, Amsterdam (The Netherlands). He is currently conducting research on Islamic education and everyday Islam in Aceh.
Art for Allah’s sake
Inside Indonesia
Concentrating intensely, a group of young Muslims guide their pens to form the flowing Arabic letters which spell out the verses of the holy Qur’an. They are talented artists who have come from across the Indonesian archipelago to study with Didin Sirojuddin, one of Indonesia’s leading calligraphers and to devote themselves to mastering the complex rules of Islamic calligraphy.
‘Writing for Allah’ is both an act of devotion and a peaceful and positive expression of Islam. The first letter of the Arabic alphabet, the upright single stroke called ‘alif,’ is believed to have been created by a divine pen activated by mystical light. The students studying with Pak Didin, as he is known, use a range of different sizes of styluses made from wood imported from Saudi Arabia for classical calligraphy. The sizes and proportions of each letter are based on a strict code of geometric rules devised by the 10th century master, Ibn Muqla. The size of the dot made by the point of the stylus is used as the basic measure to calculate the height and width of each letter.
Pak Didin’s students follow the ancient rules of calligraphy. But they are firmly planted in the here and now. They do modern calligraphy using felt pens. And when they need to double-check the wording or spelling of a Qur’anic verse they borrow an iPhone to log in to a Qur’an website, locate the verse, and check their copy against it. Modern technology makes its contribution to the accurate rendering of God’s sacred words.
A unique pesantren
Indonesia has thousands of pesantren, Islamic schools and colleges, which teach the Islamic sciences, including Arabic calligraphy. But Pak Didin’s pesantren is the only one which is devoted entirely to the study and practice of calligraphy. Although he has taught calligraphy both in Jakarta and in a number of provinces since the 1980s, he believed only the establishment of a special centre dedicated to advanced accredited courses would produce a new generation of professional calligraphers.
It was a painstaking process, beginning in 1996, to garner support from religious leaders, identify a suitable location, and raise funding to buy land and build a pesantren. In August 1998 the first students were enrolled at the Pesantren for Qur’anic Calligraphy. At present it is a modest group of buildings located on the outskirts of West Java’s beautiful hill resort of Sukabumi, although Pak Didin hopes to expand. The buildings feature open-air pavilions surrounded by trees and overlooking terraced rice fields, misty mountains, and fast-running streams. Pak Didin encourages his students to take their materials out into the beautiful surroundings so that their work can be inspired by the natural beauty and reflect God’s power of creation.
Didin admires the civilisation of ancient Greece because it valued and loved knowledge. It continues to inspire him, especially Socratic philosophy. ‘Socrates was very close to God and would hold dialogues with members of society – I do that too,’ explains Didin. Socrates would walk through Athens asking questions of those he passed so that he could try to help them. Didin practises the same philosophy with his students. He also applies it at national calligraphy competitions which bring together Indonesian calligraphers from all over the archipelago. Beginning in 1988 he started asking the participants what they felt they needed to develop Indonesian calligraphy and what the obstacles were. Their replies became a stimulus for his work.
The 120 students who enrol annually for the full-time, two semester, diploma course at the pesantren study classical and contemporary styles of calligraphy. They also study Qur’anic interpretation and Islamic civilisation, marketing and entrepreneurship, social service and preparation for calligraphy competitions. There are regular visits to galleries, museums and exhibitions, and meetings with established calligraphers. The pesantren also encourages music and the marawis (drum) ensemble of young men often accompanies groups of young women who sing kasidah, or religious songs, set to lively tunes with subtle, beautiful rhythms. A part-time, intensive course is offered at Pak Didin’s Jakarta base in Ciputat which is well-attended every weekend. Children can learn the basics of calligraphy at a kindergarten run by his wife at the Sukabumi pesantren or in special school holiday courses. Pak Didin has published many books on calligraphy, including sets of graded texts for his students.
Pak Didin’s staff are as dedicated as he is and all teach for minimal pay. This means that even the poorest of students - if they have talent and commitment - can enrol for courses. Pak Didin stresses that all his staff are appointed on merit. He does not follow the old tradition of pesantrens dominated by one religious teacher whose relatives and family hold key positions in the pesantren. He says that the calligraphy pesantren belongs to all who use it.
From comics to calligraphy
Born near Kuningan in West Java in 1957, Pak Didin was always drawing. Between 1969 and 1975 he attended the famous Pondok Moderen Gontor in East Java and began his formal study of calligraphy. He continued his studies at the State Islamic Institute (now University) Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta, where he has long been a lecturer. One of his hobbies was illustrating comic books and his talent was recognised by Hamka’s son, Rusydi. He was so impressed that he invited the young Didin to become a reporter with the magazine Panji Masyarakat, where he worked during the 1980s. This was also the period he was making his name as winner of national and international calligraphic competitions.
Pak Didin is acknowledged as one of Indonesia’s best practitioners of classical calligraphy. He is also well-known for his calligraphic paintings in which ‘classical’ calligraphy is combined with abstract art, featuring icon-like representations. These works have been shown in many public exhibitions and purchased by collectors. Even in his abstract art calligraphy, we can see Pak Didin’s interest in social issues. But it is in his designs for calendars that his conviction that calligraphy can serve society is most evident. Since the early 1990s, Pak Didin has been preparing calendars with each month’s picture featuring a vibrantly inscribed verse from the Qur’an. The themes differ from year to year based on the key social issue of that time. The annual themes have included corruption, justice, education for children, poverty and hunger, using Qur’anic verses appropriate to each issue. In this way, he is providing a daily reminder to his fellow Muslims of God’s words of guidance for them.
Calligraphy competitions
Pak Didin encourages his students to enter calligraphy competitions. He believes competing fosters their talent, broadens their experience and deepens their religious practice. Pak Didin was himself grand champion of the all-ASEAN calligraphy competition of 1987. He serves as a judge for Indonesian competitions and is invited to exhibit and judge in contests throughout the Middle East, in Turkey and Pakistan, as well as in Southeast Asia.
There were not many contestants in the early 1980s, when calligraphy had just been accepted as a serious category in the Indonesian National Qur’an Recitation Competition. Gradually, with the encouragement of masters such as Pak Didin, the numbers have grown into the hundreds. Women and men enter a range of categories, the most demanding of which lasts for seven hours. During that time contestants have to inscribe a set Qur’anic verse in seven different styles of script, and illuminate the verse with a decorated border.
Pak Didin judges at calligraphy competitions across Indonesia, from local to provincial and national levels. He takes the opportunity to use his ‘Socratic dialogue’ technique to ask judges, officials and competitors for their opinions and their needs. Based on this feedback he says, ‘Young students of calligraphy in regional areas are crying out for attention and for more intensive training.’ His pesantren at Sukabumi and his centre in Jakarta teach hundreds of students each year, but not thousands. It is Pak Didin’s dream to make specialist teaching available to more and more Indonesians across the country. Many of the graduates from his courses become teachers and return to their home villages to continue and extend his work.
Piety and beauty
Calligraphy is multi-faceted in its effects on Muslims. Those who actually write the letters experience a direct relationship with the sacred words of revelation as each letter is inscribed and placed on a surface. They perform an act of devotion as they re-create and give substance to the words of the Qur’an. Viewers of a completed work of calligraphy, whether it be placed on a wall, a calendar, a plate, or even a headband, may or may not be able to understand the meaning of the Arabic words. Even if they do not understand the message from Allah, they are able to appreciate the visual effect of the beauty of the letters as a work of art.
The harmony between the dimensions of each letter, their relationship to each other, and the pleasing symmetry each calligraphic phrase presents to viewers, is symbolic of the perfection of Allah and His essential oneness. It serves as a reminder of Allah’s power and omnipotence in all spheres of creation. It invites the viewer to reflect, if only briefly, on the spiritual aspects of being. As Panji Masyarakat noted, for Pak Didin ‘calligraphy is not only about aesthetics it also about metaphysics’.
Recognising the grace and benefits that contact with calligraphy brings, Indonesian Muslims purchase objects decorated with Qur’anic calligraphy to display in their mosques, offices and homes. As the Muslim middle class strengthens, its members increasingly dedicate part of their income to pious acts. And more and more members of this new middle class are deciding to spend money on learning calligraphy. If they have insufficient talent or time to devote to classes, they buy calligraphic works, even if these are calendars and wall hangings.
Graduates from the certificate course at the unique calligraphy pesantren are conscious of the spiritual benefits their calligraphic practice brings. They are also increasingly confident that they can make a livelihood selling serious and not so serious works of calligraphic art. Many also say they want to continue Pak Didin’s work of teaching calligraphy to those young Indonesians who are ‘crying out for attention and for more intensive training.’ As a result of Pak Didin’s work, his graduates are ensuring that calligraphy, the noblest of the Islamic arts, remains a living tradition. Not confined to museums or art galleries their writing for Allah is within reach of almost all Indonesian Muslims.
Virginia Hooker (Virginia.Hooker@anu.edu.au) is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. She would like to thank Bapak and Ibu Sirojuddin for their hospitality and patience and Ismatu Ropi MA who introduced the author to them. Pak Didin very kindly gave the author permission to photograph and re-produce his work here.
A unique pesantren, founded and led by an internationally recognised Indonesian calligrapher, attracts men and women from all over the archipelago
Virginia Hooker
 |
Pak Didin (first right) entertains visitors to the calligraphy pesantren,with marawis ensemble waiting to play.Virginia Hooker |
Concentrating intensely, a group of young Muslims guide their pens to form the flowing Arabic letters which spell out the verses of the holy Qur’an. They are talented artists who have come from across the Indonesian archipelago to study with Didin Sirojuddin, one of Indonesia’s leading calligraphers and to devote themselves to mastering the complex rules of Islamic calligraphy.
‘Writing for Allah’ is both an act of devotion and a peaceful and positive expression of Islam. The first letter of the Arabic alphabet, the upright single stroke called ‘alif,’ is believed to have been created by a divine pen activated by mystical light. The students studying with Pak Didin, as he is known, use a range of different sizes of styluses made from wood imported from Saudi Arabia for classical calligraphy. The sizes and proportions of each letter are based on a strict code of geometric rules devised by the 10th century master, Ibn Muqla. The size of the dot made by the point of the stylus is used as the basic measure to calculate the height and width of each letter.
Pak Didin’s students follow the ancient rules of calligraphy. But they are firmly planted in the here and now. They do modern calligraphy using felt pens. And when they need to double-check the wording or spelling of a Qur’anic verse they borrow an iPhone to log in to a Qur’an website, locate the verse, and check their copy against it. Modern technology makes its contribution to the accurate rendering of God’s sacred words.
A unique pesantren
Indonesia has thousands of pesantren, Islamic schools and colleges, which teach the Islamic sciences, including Arabic calligraphy. But Pak Didin’s pesantren is the only one which is devoted entirely to the study and practice of calligraphy. Although he has taught calligraphy both in Jakarta and in a number of provinces since the 1980s, he believed only the establishment of a special centre dedicated to advanced accredited courses would produce a new generation of professional calligraphers.
It was a painstaking process, beginning in 1996, to garner support from religious leaders, identify a suitable location, and raise funding to buy land and build a pesantren. In August 1998 the first students were enrolled at the Pesantren for Qur’anic Calligraphy. At present it is a modest group of buildings located on the outskirts of West Java’s beautiful hill resort of Sukabumi, although Pak Didin hopes to expand. The buildings feature open-air pavilions surrounded by trees and overlooking terraced rice fields, misty mountains, and fast-running streams. Pak Didin encourages his students to take their materials out into the beautiful surroundings so that their work can be inspired by the natural beauty and reflect God’s power of creation.
Didin admires the civilisation of ancient Greece because it valued and loved knowledge. It continues to inspire him, especially Socratic philosophy. ‘Socrates was very close to God and would hold dialogues with members of society – I do that too,’ explains Didin. Socrates would walk through Athens asking questions of those he passed so that he could try to help them. Didin practises the same philosophy with his students. He also applies it at national calligraphy competitions which bring together Indonesian calligraphers from all over the archipelago. Beginning in 1988 he started asking the participants what they felt they needed to develop Indonesian calligraphy and what the obstacles were. Their replies became a stimulus for his work.
The 120 students who enrol annually for the full-time, two semester, diploma course at the pesantren study classical and contemporary styles of calligraphy. They also study Qur’anic interpretation and Islamic civilisation, marketing and entrepreneurship, social service and preparation for calligraphy competitions. There are regular visits to galleries, museums and exhibitions, and meetings with established calligraphers. The pesantren also encourages music and the marawis (drum) ensemble of young men often accompanies groups of young women who sing kasidah, or religious songs, set to lively tunes with subtle, beautiful rhythms. A part-time, intensive course is offered at Pak Didin’s Jakarta base in Ciputat which is well-attended every weekend. Children can learn the basics of calligraphy at a kindergarten run by his wife at the Sukabumi pesantren or in special school holiday courses. Pak Didin has published many books on calligraphy, including sets of graded texts for his students.
Pak Didin’s staff are as dedicated as he is and all teach for minimal pay. This means that even the poorest of students - if they have talent and commitment - can enrol for courses. Pak Didin stresses that all his staff are appointed on merit. He does not follow the old tradition of pesantrens dominated by one religious teacher whose relatives and family hold key positions in the pesantren. He says that the calligraphy pesantren belongs to all who use it.
From comics to calligraphy
Born near Kuningan in West Java in 1957, Pak Didin was always drawing. Between 1969 and 1975 he attended the famous Pondok Moderen Gontor in East Java and began his formal study of calligraphy. He continued his studies at the State Islamic Institute (now University) Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta, where he has long been a lecturer. One of his hobbies was illustrating comic books and his talent was recognised by Hamka’s son, Rusydi. He was so impressed that he invited the young Didin to become a reporter with the magazine Panji Masyarakat, where he worked during the 1980s. This was also the period he was making his name as winner of national and international calligraphic competitions.
Pak Didin is acknowledged as one of Indonesia’s best practitioners of classical calligraphy. He is also well-known for his calligraphic paintings in which ‘classical’ calligraphy is combined with abstract art, featuring icon-like representations. These works have been shown in many public exhibitions and purchased by collectors. Even in his abstract art calligraphy, we can see Pak Didin’s interest in social issues. But it is in his designs for calendars that his conviction that calligraphy can serve society is most evident. Since the early 1990s, Pak Didin has been preparing calendars with each month’s picture featuring a vibrantly inscribed verse from the Qur’an. The themes differ from year to year based on the key social issue of that time. The annual themes have included corruption, justice, education for children, poverty and hunger, using Qur’anic verses appropriate to each issue. In this way, he is providing a daily reminder to his fellow Muslims of God’s words of guidance for them.
Calligraphy competitions
Pak Didin encourages his students to enter calligraphy competitions. He believes competing fosters their talent, broadens their experience and deepens their religious practice. Pak Didin was himself grand champion of the all-ASEAN calligraphy competition of 1987. He serves as a judge for Indonesian competitions and is invited to exhibit and judge in contests throughout the Middle East, in Turkey and Pakistan, as well as in Southeast Asia.
There were not many contestants in the early 1980s, when calligraphy had just been accepted as a serious category in the Indonesian National Qur’an Recitation Competition. Gradually, with the encouragement of masters such as Pak Didin, the numbers have grown into the hundreds. Women and men enter a range of categories, the most demanding of which lasts for seven hours. During that time contestants have to inscribe a set Qur’anic verse in seven different styles of script, and illuminate the verse with a decorated border.
Pak Didin judges at calligraphy competitions across Indonesia, from local to provincial and national levels. He takes the opportunity to use his ‘Socratic dialogue’ technique to ask judges, officials and competitors for their opinions and their needs. Based on this feedback he says, ‘Young students of calligraphy in regional areas are crying out for attention and for more intensive training.’ His pesantren at Sukabumi and his centre in Jakarta teach hundreds of students each year, but not thousands. It is Pak Didin’s dream to make specialist teaching available to more and more Indonesians across the country. Many of the graduates from his courses become teachers and return to their home villages to continue and extend his work.
Piety and beauty
Calligraphy is multi-faceted in its effects on Muslims. Those who actually write the letters experience a direct relationship with the sacred words of revelation as each letter is inscribed and placed on a surface. They perform an act of devotion as they re-create and give substance to the words of the Qur’an. Viewers of a completed work of calligraphy, whether it be placed on a wall, a calendar, a plate, or even a headband, may or may not be able to understand the meaning of the Arabic words. Even if they do not understand the message from Allah, they are able to appreciate the visual effect of the beauty of the letters as a work of art.
The harmony between the dimensions of each letter, their relationship to each other, and the pleasing symmetry each calligraphic phrase presents to viewers, is symbolic of the perfection of Allah and His essential oneness. It serves as a reminder of Allah’s power and omnipotence in all spheres of creation. It invites the viewer to reflect, if only briefly, on the spiritual aspects of being. As Panji Masyarakat noted, for Pak Didin ‘calligraphy is not only about aesthetics it also about metaphysics’.
Recognising the grace and benefits that contact with calligraphy brings, Indonesian Muslims purchase objects decorated with Qur’anic calligraphy to display in their mosques, offices and homes. As the Muslim middle class strengthens, its members increasingly dedicate part of their income to pious acts. And more and more members of this new middle class are deciding to spend money on learning calligraphy. If they have insufficient talent or time to devote to classes, they buy calligraphic works, even if these are calendars and wall hangings.
Graduates from the certificate course at the unique calligraphy pesantren are conscious of the spiritual benefits their calligraphic practice brings. They are also increasingly confident that they can make a livelihood selling serious and not so serious works of calligraphic art. Many also say they want to continue Pak Didin’s work of teaching calligraphy to those young Indonesians who are ‘crying out for attention and for more intensive training.’ As a result of Pak Didin’s work, his graduates are ensuring that calligraphy, the noblest of the Islamic arts, remains a living tradition. Not confined to museums or art galleries their writing for Allah is within reach of almost all Indonesian Muslims.
Virginia Hooker (Virginia.Hooker@anu.edu.au) is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. She would like to thank Bapak and Ibu Sirojuddin for their hospitality and patience and Ismatu Ropi MA who introduced the author to them. Pak Didin very kindly gave the author permission to photograph and re-produce his work here.
Aug 7, 2010
Online Polling, Once an Outcast, Burnishes Its Image
WSJ.com
Aug 7, 2010
By CARL BIALIK
Each day, 5,000 Americans fill out an online survey rating corporate brands on such criteria as quality, value and reputation. Their responses are compiled into a daily tracking index that aims to show the ebbs and flows of brand value.
The tracking poll, conducted by U.K. survey company YouGov PLC, has shown how much an automobile recall cost Toyota in reputation, and how long it took to bounce back. Its German arm has made headlines for measuring the deep dive in the reputation of a German fitness-studio chain after its founder's music festival last month ended in a deadly stampede. And BP PLC has used the poll to follow public response to the massive oil spill this year from its well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person familiar with the matter. (A BP spokeswoman declined to disclose which measures the company uses.)
Daily tracking polls are becoming a must-have for companies who have suffered blows to their public standing. Online polls are fast, and often less expensive than telephone surveys. But getting measurements quickly on so many companies involves taking steps that could dent the reliability of the numbers.
Those pitfalls, including questions about maintaining a random sample of participants, worry data experts who study survey methodologies. Still, the growing acceptance of Web-based surveys marks a turning point in the polling industry. Until recently, many established pollsters had shunned their online counterparts or said their methods were dubious. Now, some traditional telephone pollsters have begun incorporating online polling themselves.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, a poll founded at the University of Michigan, until this year conducted surveys exclusively by phone. "We used to think telephone sampling was the way to go," says David VanAmburg, managing director of the index, which now is produced by a for-profit company in Ann Arbor, Mich. But then people started ditching landline phones—one in five households, at last count, were cellphone-only. This spring, ACSI began blending online and telephone polling.
YouGov began tracking American opinion of corporate brands three years ago for its poll, which it calls BrandIndex. (YouGov has conducted polls for U.K. papers the Sun and the Times, which like The Wall Street Journal are owned by News Corp.) Each day, the company sends out enough surveys to members of its one-million-person panel of U.S. adults in order to receive back at least 5,000 completed surveys on 1,100 brands. Each brand is rated by between 50 and 125 people per day, and the results are combined into a single score.
"If you have a crisis or a potential crisis, you can have a sense of, how much of an impact is this having with consumers?" says Ted Marzilli, the New York-based global managing director for BrandIndex.
Other research companies take a different approach to using the Web to monitor corporate reputations. New York firm NM Incite, for example, monitors chatter on blogs and social networks, using automated tools to detect whether comments such as Twitter posts are positive or negative. While some respondents to an online poll might not be customers of the brand they rate, or might not have much influence over others, people who comment on blogs and social-networking sites are likely to have an outsize impact on brands.
A problem, though, is ensuring that the software correctly categorizes online buzz. "That's the hard part," says Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of digital strategic services for NM Incite, a joint venture of the media-measurement firm Nielsen Co. and McKinsey & Co. "Anyone who claims perfection is misleading you." The company continually updates its algorithm and occasionally has analysts review material, he adds.
More Numbers Guy
Alternative Ways to Gather Census Data
Scientists Tabulate Mysteries of the Aged
When Coincidences Look Like Outbreaks
Some data experts wouldn't consider YouGov's survey panel, recruited exclusively online, to be randomly chosen. For one, not all Americans have Internet access. Also, polls that recruit participants online favor the heaviest Web users, who are more likely to spot the ads seeking brand raters.
Mr. Marzilli says the company ensures respondents are representative of the overall population by such factors as age and gender. He also questions whether those who aren't online "would view BP or Toyota inherently differently than people with Internet usage." And he pointed to the company's success using similar panels for political polling—for instance, predicting Barack Obama would beat John McCain by six percentage points in the national popular vote for president in 2008. President Obama won by seven percentage points.
Even survey experts who have doubts about the reliability of online polling say it is a useful way of tracking changes in public opinion over time. "There is probably no other mechanism available" for the intensive daily results like those the BrandIndex seeks to generate, says Michael Brick, vice president of Westat, a company that conducts polls for the U.S. government. "If you use caution with the results, you can get something valuable out of them."
Write to Carl Bialik at numbersguy@wsj.com
Aug 7, 2010
By CARL BIALIK
The Numbers Guy Blog
The tracking poll, conducted by U.K. survey company YouGov PLC, has shown how much an automobile recall cost Toyota in reputation, and how long it took to bounce back. Its German arm has made headlines for measuring the deep dive in the reputation of a German fitness-studio chain after its founder's music festival last month ended in a deadly stampede. And BP PLC has used the poll to follow public response to the massive oil spill this year from its well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person familiar with the matter. (A BP spokeswoman declined to disclose which measures the company uses.)
Daily tracking polls are becoming a must-have for companies who have suffered blows to their public standing. Online polls are fast, and often less expensive than telephone surveys. But getting measurements quickly on so many companies involves taking steps that could dent the reliability of the numbers.
Those pitfalls, including questions about maintaining a random sample of participants, worry data experts who study survey methodologies. Still, the growing acceptance of Web-based surveys marks a turning point in the polling industry. Until recently, many established pollsters had shunned their online counterparts or said their methods were dubious. Now, some traditional telephone pollsters have begun incorporating online polling themselves.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, a poll founded at the University of Michigan, until this year conducted surveys exclusively by phone. "We used to think telephone sampling was the way to go," says David VanAmburg, managing director of the index, which now is produced by a for-profit company in Ann Arbor, Mich. But then people started ditching landline phones—one in five households, at last count, were cellphone-only. This spring, ACSI began blending online and telephone polling.
YouGov began tracking American opinion of corporate brands three years ago for its poll, which it calls BrandIndex. (YouGov has conducted polls for U.K. papers the Sun and the Times, which like The Wall Street Journal are owned by News Corp.) Each day, the company sends out enough surveys to members of its one-million-person panel of U.S. adults in order to receive back at least 5,000 completed surveys on 1,100 brands. Each brand is rated by between 50 and 125 people per day, and the results are combined into a single score.
"If you have a crisis or a potential crisis, you can have a sense of, how much of an impact is this having with consumers?" says Ted Marzilli, the New York-based global managing director for BrandIndex.
Other research companies take a different approach to using the Web to monitor corporate reputations. New York firm NM Incite, for example, monitors chatter on blogs and social networks, using automated tools to detect whether comments such as Twitter posts are positive or negative. While some respondents to an online poll might not be customers of the brand they rate, or might not have much influence over others, people who comment on blogs and social-networking sites are likely to have an outsize impact on brands.
A problem, though, is ensuring that the software correctly categorizes online buzz. "That's the hard part," says Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of digital strategic services for NM Incite, a joint venture of the media-measurement firm Nielsen Co. and McKinsey & Co. "Anyone who claims perfection is misleading you." The company continually updates its algorithm and occasionally has analysts review material, he adds.
More Numbers Guy
Alternative Ways to Gather Census Data
Scientists Tabulate Mysteries of the Aged
When Coincidences Look Like Outbreaks
Some data experts wouldn't consider YouGov's survey panel, recruited exclusively online, to be randomly chosen. For one, not all Americans have Internet access. Also, polls that recruit participants online favor the heaviest Web users, who are more likely to spot the ads seeking brand raters.
Mr. Marzilli says the company ensures respondents are representative of the overall population by such factors as age and gender. He also questions whether those who aren't online "would view BP or Toyota inherently differently than people with Internet usage." And he pointed to the company's success using similar panels for political polling—for instance, predicting Barack Obama would beat John McCain by six percentage points in the national popular vote for president in 2008. President Obama won by seven percentage points.
Even survey experts who have doubts about the reliability of online polling say it is a useful way of tracking changes in public opinion over time. "There is probably no other mechanism available" for the intensive daily results like those the BrandIndex seeks to generate, says Michael Brick, vice president of Westat, a company that conducts polls for the U.S. government. "If you use caution with the results, you can get something valuable out of them."
Write to Carl Bialik at numbersguy@wsj.com
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