A Reflexive Note on the Sex Tape Issue: The Loss of Eastern Culture in Indonesia

Within the last two days (June 7 – 8, 2010) Indonesian society was terribly shocked with sensational news. Two sex tape videos, depicting people resembled closely to Indonesian celebrities, Ariel, Luna Maya and Cut Tari, spread widely on the net and were instantly consumed by mass society. Soon enough, some scenes of the sex tape were depicted in the television, with blurred images. Still, it was broadcasted regularly from the morning news, noon infotainment, until evening news. The broadcasts enabled more and more people, children included, to have access to the news. Soon enough, a trending topic on twitter '#Ariel Peterporn", ranked number one for more than seven hours. Looking this phenomena as a student, therefore I critically try to express what I feel and think about this issue on this piece of writing.

Sex tape scandal, is probably one of the worst thing for you to expect in Indonesia. Being raised in a society where Eastern Culture is taught, having a sex tape distributed widely everywhere is worse than killing somebody. How could? Eastern Culture emphasizes on the spiritual side. Thus Eastern people were taught to perfect their spiritual and religious side in order to be branded and considered as a good guy. People who are faithful in their religion, care for others and always smile to other persons, helpful to others no matter the cost is, will always be hailed as the good guy. That is the perfect and ideal image of a person any Easterners wants to be. Influenced highly with spiritual side, many values in Eastern Culture are governed from religious values. In Indonesia for particular, religions still play the big role in determining what good and bad are. Simply said, for those who committed what religions prohibited will be branded as bad persons. Thus, having sex outside the marriage institution is very wrong in Indonesia since the norms and rules governed by religion and society say so. Moreover, having sex with a married woman, a mother of children. Can you imagine what will happen if you commit those and then suddenly your bad deeds are exposed publicly and witnessed by millions of people? Thus, I said that it feels worse than killing somebody.

In contrast, Western Culture will not matter such things. A sex tape scandal of Paris Hilton and Nick Carter, and then Collin Farrel and others seem to be trivial. Police will not busy themselves with such issues, unlike in Indonesia. People will probably talk about this issue but will take it for granted. Thy will not care about people doing the tape since it is their own business. Then, how can I say that the sex tape reveals how Indonesians are going to be in the future. How can I say that Eastern Culture is somehow loss? My argument is based on how people comment on this issue observed from social media networks, facebook and twitter.
It is surprising to see how people react to this issue. At first, what will you expect to read when this issue is blown up? In a society where Eastern Culture is prevailed, I expect to read comments that condemn the doers and say how embarrassing the tape is, regardless on who actually the persons on the tape are. Instead, what I read was something like this:












 (for the sake of privacy, the ids are all blocked. The pictures are taken from print screen program)


Various comments of the issue lead to one general conclusion. Most Indonesians, youth generally, have watched the sex tape. And judging from the comments, it seems that only small minorities matter this issue. Most of the youngsters take this issue as a blessing in disguise. The suspected as Ariel, was said to tape another video (around 30s) with various suspected as celebrities. Many youth and youngsters are longing for the next video to be issued. Many youths and youngsters wait and try to find the next video. It certainly violates what is called as Eastern Culture. They talk it as usual matter. No one seems to complain or take the matter seriously. They ridicule it and make it trivial. And judging from the comments gathered, Indonesians no longer uphold their Eastern Culture as they used to be. There is a shifting, that if not taken seriously will lead to the evaporation of Eastern Culture in Indonesia. Youth is the next generation of a country. What will happen if youth do not hold on to their mother's culture? Gradually, more and more Eastern values are gone.


Not only that, look at how our media treat this issue. As long as there is no evidence that states officially who the actors and actresses in the tape are, we cannot say directly to address the actor and actress in the tape as the names stated previously. Our media, however, lead us to trust that it was truly them (A, LM and CT) by doing their own analysis by comparing the persons in tape to them. Thus, the comments on the social media networks position the Ariel, Luna Maya and Cut Tari as the real actor and actress although there has been no official evidence yet. And it is like giving death sentence for them, even before the verdict is issued.
The sex tape scandal can be a medium for us to see how our society truly is. Many others don't care about the importance of fact, and thus lingering on opinions and gossips. They already judge someone as wrong, without knowing what the fact is. Many watch the sex tape with their friends. Our television stations broadcast that issue along with the blurred image of the video at the prime time when children can access this. Clearly, it shows that our Eastern values are gone gradually. And it is up to us, whether we want to still preserve it or not.



PS: Revise Comment, June 17, 2010. 
Yesterday, one of IT expert that was employed by police declared that the sex tape was true although, he did not confirm whether A, LM, and CT were the real actor/actresses. The focus of this article is still not on them.  The focus is on the society, the impact on the society that shows the erosion of Eastern culture. 


PS2: July 23, 2010
It's been a month and the case still runs hotly. Ariel had been arrested, being charged as the actor of the video. Cut Tari finally confessed, she admitted that it was her on the tape. While Luna Maya still kept on silent though implicitly she asked for apology for every issue happened because of her. Still, once again, this post concerned on the impact of the tape to the society, not on them. But every latest news concerning the case will be included as revised comment. 

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