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An article from South China Morning Post Newspaper
in Hongkong
1 October 2003
Indonesia to outlaw gay sex with new moral code
Rights groups say that the 'ridiculous' proposals are a massive step backwards
MARIANNE KEARNEY in Jakarta
Indonesia plans to ban homosexual sex, oral sex, and other "immoral" acts
in a new criminal code.
The Justice Ministry is drafting amendments aimed at prohibiting acts
that it believes are destroying Indonesia's moral fabric.
Ministry spokesman Sukartono Supangat said: "It is still in its early
stage. We're collecting input from various parties and experts."
Among the acts that are not currently included in the criminal code but
considered immoral by the justice ministry would be homosexual sex, oral sex, sex outside of marriage and sorcery, he said.
It is not clear how such laws would be policed, but the draft changes
propose three to 12-year jail sentences for anal and oral sex, and one to seven years for homosexual sex. The draft also proposes
that any unmarried couple found guilty of cohabitation be punished with up to two years' jail.
A man who makes a woman pregnant, but refuses to marry her, could spend
five years in prison.
Gay groups say the proposals are a step back for Indonesia and will violate
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Indonesia is a signatory.
"It's insane, it is ridiculous. Even Singapore is opening up to gays now,"
said John Badalu, director of Q Mutiny, an Indonesian arts and culture organisation.
He said gay and human rights groups would lobby to have the draft law
dropped.
Gay people in Indonesia say they are generally accepted. Until now, there
has been no law banning homosexuality.
One of Indonesia's most famous entertainers is a transvestite, who wears
modest Muslim dresses and headscarves and features regularly on Indonesian variety shows.
Gay groups say the proposal appears to be related to concerns of Muslims
over the easy access young Indonesians have to pornographic VCDs and drugs. The open practice of prostitution and the provocative
dancing of local pop star Inul Daratista has also caused controversy.
"I think this has all been triggered by the Inul phenomena. People have
started discussing pornography and morals," said Mr Badalu.
Inul Daratista - a Malay-Arabic pop or dangdut singer - shot to fame after
her provocative dancing style was condemned by Muslim leaders as pornographic.
Although they called for a fatwah against her she became a national sensation,
single-handedly reviving dangdut popularity on Indonesian television, sparking a league of imitators and featuring a television
soap opera on her rise from small-town girl to national star.
Parliament is also drafting an anti-pornography law and campaigning against
Indonesia's perceived moral decline has become increasing popular among Indonesian political parties.
Justice Minister Yusril Izha Mahendra, who also heads the Crescent and
Star Party - a conservative Muslim party - appears to be responsible for the proposed laws.
It is not clear whether most secular parties would support such laws,
but they are likely to be supported by Muslim parties who would use the moral campaign to improve their popularity ahead of
next year's elections, analysts said.
An article from The Sentinel Record, a local
newspaper in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA
2 August 2003
Cultural exchange brings Jakarta film
fest director
BY JOHN LOVETT
THE SENTINEL RECORD (AUGUST 2,2003)
John Badalu, Jakarta International Film Festival program director and
independent film producer, had plenty to talk about at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute Wednesday.
Masino, the institute's executive director and a former television
and print journalist, seemed to be asking most of the questions though of this traveler. Badalu's stop in Hot Springs was
part of a national tour sponsored by the Indonesian government and the U.S. State Department.
At the institute, the informal meeting included Dwayne and Peggy Vandenberg,
coordinators of the Hot Springs International Visitors Program. The Vandenbergs welcome people, and often groups, from all
over the world, many times a year, as part of this government subsidized program.
Badalu said the Jakarta International Film Festival screened 160 titles
this year. There is only 10 people on that festivalıs screening committee and they watch between 600 and 700 films each. The
Hot Springs festivals screening committee has about 30 people and screens between 200 and 300 films for a festival with 80
to 90 titles. People in Jakarta prefer to view the international films in either the original language or with English subtitles.
Badalu said his festival focuses on contemporary issues and pay particular interest to Middle East countries.
Wearing a sleek, short-sleeved gray shirt, black jeans and a pair of
black leather buckled shoes with a curiously curled up flat-edge toe, Badalu said he has received death threats for his work
in Jakarta, a city of 12 million people, last year for starting up a gay and lesbian film festival. He also got threats the
theater he screened them in would be burned down. The 1,000-mile long island nation is 80 percent Muslim, he said, and has
a growing conservative majority. Donna Casparian, a film institute board member, said the Hot Springs festival manages to
offend its fair share of people, too, but the most controversial documentaries are usually the most well-attended, she added.
Despite the antagonism, he managed to take it on the road to college
campuses and various towns. The smallest town he took it to has a population of about 250,000, he said, with many of them
over 1 million.
The Jakarta International Film Festival screened 160 films this year,
Badalu said and his outreach program stretches to Pusan, South Korea; Singapore and Toronto.
Earlier Wednesday morning, Badalu stopped by City Manager Kent Myers
office to learn how the city is involved with supporting the local arts community. Myers gave examples such as the acquisition
of paintings and sculptures for the downtown area, promotional assistance of arts through the Hot Springs Advertising and
Promotion Commission and use of the Hot Springs Youth Center for the Hot Springs Music Festival. Badalu would later meet with
Focus Garland County Director Darlene Garrett and then visit the Mid-America Science Museum. He left for Seattle Saturday
after a night on the town.
Badalu was spotted Wednesday night exiting Schapiros on Central, getting
his fill of blues from the Hump Night Blues Band, with Garrett and Serge Bluds, his U.S. State Department escort. The brief
meeting included a few follow up questions, such as what are some of the stranger foods he has eaten in his homeland. He said
there are many strange foods in Indonesia, but he admitted laughingly to have eaten the ears of white mice and bats.
Although shark fin soup is a popular, and odd food, he agreed that
the method of obtaining the fins is cruel. Fishermen cut the fins off then toss the shark back in the water alive, spiraling
downward unable to swim. He also said birdıs nest soup was tasty.
Badalu now speaks five languages, after learning German last year.
One of the jobs he has in Jakarta is with a German state department. Being a travel writer on the side, he said he plans to
write a book about his experiences, having traveled the world as a cultural affairs liaison.
Badalu, who looked to be in his late 30s, has spoken English since
he was 12 and now speaks a collective five languages after learning German last year. Hes been out on his own since he was
15. His parents won a store on an island in Indonesia. One of the jobs he has in Jakarta is with a German state department.
Being a travel writer on the side, he plans to write a book about his experiences traveling the world as a cultural affairs
liaison.
An article from Indiewire.com ( a US internet portal
on movies)
14 February 2003
Annual Queer Fest Meeting Spotlights Troubles in Asia
by Eugene Hernandez
More than 75 organizers and programmers of queer film festivals from around the world gathered here in Berlin on Wednesday
for an annual discussion about the state of international queer film festivals. The dialogue, held this year in the downstairs
lounge at the Kino International on Karl Marx Alle in Mitte, included a focused discussion on developments at queer film festivals
in Asia. Among the participants in the discussion, which was moderated by the Teddy Foundation's Manuela Kay, were
Cui Zi'en, head of the first queer festival in Bejing, Wei-jan Liu of Taipei's Golden Horse Film Festival
in Taiwan, and John Badalu, founder of the Q! Film Screening in Jakarta, Indonesia.
While queer film festivals have flowered in North America and in Western Europe, despite facing budget challenges and pockets
of discrimination, the situation in Asia has been nearly insurmountable in some cases. Film professor Cui Zi'en faced some
of the toughest opposition to queer cinema festivals, at home in China. He spoke at length about a recent run-in with government
authorities who shut down his festival just a few days into its run. Out of the many movies made in China, Cui Zi'en said,
few are queer films and those few are censored and not allowed to be seen in the country. Of the 30 million homosexuals in
China only a handful are openly gay, according to the film professor who has tenure but is often not allowed to teach courses.
The queer festival in Bejing was announced just a few days before it began, Cui Zi'en said, to avoid giving authorities
too much advance word. Websites that carried the information on the event were shut down, yet large crowds showed up for the
event. When the festival was closed by the government, smaller groups held private screenings to allow some film lovers a
chance to see the films. Speaking through a translator, Cui Zi'en called his event a true underground festival and vowed to
return with a festival in Bejing and in one other Chinese city.
In the case of the Wei-jan Liu of Taipei, the situation is a bit more tolerable. She, as a member of the executive committee
for the Golden Horse Film Festival, is working within the system to showcase queer cinema. She acknowledged that over the
past 10 years that the situation for queer cinema has improved. Her event offers a section of gay and lesbian work and she
maintains a goal of launching a queer film festival in the future.
There are filmmakers in Taiwan who regularly make gay-themed movies, but must remain publicly silent about their own sexual
orientation, she explained, when asked about the situation back home for gays and lesbians. Asked about the work of an internationally
known Asian filmmaker, Wei-jan Liu quietly commented, "He is not openly gay," and the subject was changed.
Finally, at the Q! Film Screening in Jakarta, John Badalu has faced opposition to his event in a country that he explained
is about 80 percent Muslim. Yet, of the three examples cited during the discussion, he remains the most successful in making
an event happen. By partnering with the Goethe Institute and the Italian institute in Jarkarta, Badalu hosted a five-day event
at the end of September 2002. Films screened during the free event included "Wilde," "I Shot Andy Warhol," "Torch Song
Trilogy," and "Lan Yu."
The challenge in the case of the Q! festival in Jakarta is the submissions process. Films sent to the festival through
customs face censorship so organizers have had to rely on tapes passed quietly from person to person. Death threats remain
a factor for Badalu and promotion can be quite difficult. But with a group of organizers that are also journalists, the event
has been publicized with articles in publications.
Among the other queer festival organizers who attended Wednesday's gathering here in Berlin were planners and programmers
from queer festivals in Paris, Los Angeles, Iceland, Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, Japan, New York, and events throughout Germany.
Following individual introductions and the discussion, many lingered to network and drink cocktails.
The Teddy Foundation, organizers of the annual queer festival meeting, are also the planners of tonight's popular Teddy
Awards celebration. The 17th annual event will honor, with cash prizes culled from donations, the best in queer cinema from
all sections of the annual Berlinale. Not an official part of the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, the Teddys
do have the blessings of the festival and the city. Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick will again attend the ceremony,
as did his predecessor Moritz de Hadeln. Berlin's openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, helped secure funding for
tonight's event.
Pictured at Wednesday's discussion about queer film festivals in Asia are (left to right): Christopher Peters
(Berlinale Panorama section), Manuela Kay (Teddy Organization, Berlin), John Badalu (Q! Film Screening, Jakarta), Wei-jan
Liu (Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan) and Cui Zi'en (Beijing's queer film festival, China).
Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE
An article from the Jakarta Post about my "MenScape"
photo exhibition.
18 July, 2002.
Badalu sees the world
from different angles
Christina Schott, Contributor, Jakarta
There is always more than one perspective - everywhere. One only has
to find it. And this often needs time and patience. Self-educated photographer John Badalu is obviously patient enough to
take his time. He always finds a different angle wherever he goes with his almost 20-year-old pocket camera.
"If I come to a place, I usually try to find a corner, where nobody else
goes," the Jakarta-based freelancer says.
Menscape
is the title of the first photo exhibition by far-traveled Badalu at Pojok I See Gallery on Jl. Diponegoro 65, Central Jakarta.
His atmospheric black-and-white-pictures deal either with men or landscape
or put both in a mutual context - like in the photo Relaxing, which features a half-naked body of a young man who seems
to fuse with rocks foamed over by the spray of waves.
The arts manager, festival organizer, fashion designer and passionate
writer began taking photos soon after he received his first pocket camera from his parents at the age of 16.
"By that time it was my big dream to become a professional photographer,"
Badalu says. "I always wanted to be an artist, but I never succeeded - so I finally became one of the organizers to get closer."
It was about the same age that he started traveling, which later on became
a passion for the 30-year-old from Makassar, South Sulawesi. This was also around the time when black-and-white-films were first being sold
in Indonesia. He was curious to try their effect. "I wanted to be different," Badalu says.
In 1983, the former student of economics invested Rp 60,000 in a simple
Fuji DL15 camera, which since then has become his faithful companion during his extended travels to Europe and
throughout Indonesia. Badalu rather pays the repair costs, which are usually higher than the original
price of the camera, than buy a new one.
Badalu's sense of individuality also expresses itself in his photos.
Either by taking shots at unconventional angles - for example showing the glass pyramid of the famous Louvre museum in Paris
in the background of a street lamp - or by the selection of his focus - mainly objects from daily life, like a telephone or
a bicycle, suddenly placed in the center of attention by special lighting.
When focussing on people, the openly gay man prefers male models. "Most
photographers are always concentrating on women," he says. "I just like to show that pictures of men can be very esthetic
and erotic as well."
All pictures live out of their game with light and shadow. The photographer
never uses a flash to avoid any artificial effect. Badalu's photos express the natural dependence on daylight of all life.
None of the people in his pictures pose or are aware of being photographed. They are mainly either sleeping or seen from the
background, while the sun paints patterns on their bodies.
"I like to act like somebody who is watching people without being noticed,"
Badalu said, explaining his perspective.
So the photographer is able to freeze some rare moments of stillness,
which sometimes express a deep personal freedom.
Badalu wants to conserve his experiences for the eyes of his compatriots,
many of whom don't have the chance to see so many other countries.
"I try to catch the landmarks of each place, which are unusual for Indonesians,"
he says.
In the meantime, Badalu feels himself in between the different cultures
of East and West. Living in Indonesia, on the one hand, means always being expected to take part in any kind of social
life. Living in Jakarta, on the other hand, means that there are many aspects of Western life available.
"Even if I love to have people around me, being alone sometimes can also
be very nice," Badalu says. The contributor for several magazines and newspapers has just started to write a novel about his
experience of being single and living in the metropolis.
Being also busy with organizing activities for foreign cultural institutions
like the Goethe Institute or the Italian Cultural Institute, the success of his photo exhibition doesn't seem to be very important
to Badalu's future planning.
Even though he has already received five offers for bigger exhibitions,
Badalu has already chosen his priority: Before all else he wants to be independent in his decisions.
Menscape by John Badalu at the Pojok I See Gallery
on Jl. Diponegoro No. 65, Menteng, Central Jakarta will last until July 24.
An article from detik.com (a news internet portal) about
my "MenScape" photo exhibition.
5 July 2002
Pameran Foto MenScape John Badalu
Arsitektur Tubuh Lelaki dalam
Fotografi
Reporter : Is Mujiarso
detikhot - Jakarta,Tiba-tiba orang harus mengenali kembali sosok laki-laki. Siapa mereka? Gelitikan inilah yang
akan mampir ke benak Anda jika menyaksikan pameran fotografi bertajuk "MenScape" yang digelar oleh John Badalu di Podjok I
See Gallery, Jalan Diponegoro No.65, Menteng, Jakarta Pusat mulai 4 Juli 2002 lalu --dan digelar hingga 24 Juli 2002.
Lewat 20 buah foto hitam-putih karya John itu, lelaki seakan kembali. Jenis kelamin yang satu ini memang seperti hilang
selama ini. Jika toh hadir, ia hanya dibincangkan sebagai sumber ketidakadilan gender, penindas perempuan dan akar berbagai
ketimpangan sosial.
"MenScape" mengembalikan lelaki sebagai dirinya, sebagai tubuh yang punya hak sama dengan perempuan untuk menjadi ikon
penting dalam budaya. Kesannya, John memang melawan arus. Menampilkan laki-laki dalam fotografi? Yang bener aja! Bukankah
selama ini, kalau tidak benda-benda dan panorama alam, objek setiap foto adalah perempuan?
"Saya kira kita hidup dalam ruang yang tidak seimbang. Keindahan selalu diidentikan dengan perempuan. Padahal, laki-laki
yang juga bisa ditampilkan dari sisi-sisi erotisnya," ujar John Badalu yang mengaku bukan fotografer itu. Dan, John memang
bukan. Ia lebih bisa dikatakan sebagai seorang peziarah.
Selama 15 tahun, ia berkeliling ke tak kurang 15 negara. Dalam setiap perjalanannya, ia tak pernah lupa membawa kamera
saku berlensa 35 mm. Dengan bekal itu, ia menjadi seorang "pengintip". Maka, ketika lewat pameran ini orang diajak untuk menikmati
hasil "intipan"-nya, John seakan merengkuh orang-orang di luar dirinya untuk masuk ke dalam wilayah personalnya.
Orang pun kemudian boleh saja terheran-heran, mengapa John gemar mengabadikan tubuh laki-laki? Lihat, misalnya foto berjudul
"Sven" yang merekam seorang lelaki yang tengah berbaring telanjang di atas bangku panjang. Alat kelaminnya tersembunyi di
balik sudut meja dan orang masih bisa melihat, tangan kiri lelaki itu juga tengah menutupi alat kelaminnya.
"Sven itu nama lelaki itu, dia orang Jerman," terang salah satu pendiri Majalah Djakarta yang kini bekerja di GoetheHaus,
pusat kebudayaan Jerman di Jakarta itu.
Foto berjudul Morning Glory juga merekam objek yang sama, laki-laki -juga telanjang tapi dalam "pose" yang berbeda.
Lelaki itu duduk di tepi ranjang memunggungi pengamat. Orang hanya bisa menyaksikan lekuk tubuhnya saja. Mengambil lokasi
di Hotel Grand Hyatt, Jakarta, kali ini John menampilkan mantan kekasihnya sendiri sebagai objek fotonya.
Nah, sampai di sini orang tahu, mengapa laki-laki menjadi objek yang menarik bagi John -dan dia mengajak pengamat pameran
fotonya untuk masuk ke dalam sudut pandang itu. Tentu, hal ini tidak berarti bahwa untuk bisa menikmati keindahan foto-foto
John, orang harus menjadi "penyuka sesama lelaki" terlebih dahulu.
Justru sebaliknya, lewat pameran foto ini John menunjukan betapa tubuh bersifat universal dan mengatasi jenis kelamin.
Keindahan adalah tubuh itu sendiri -tidak peduli apa (jenis) kelaminnya. Maka, orang tetap bisa dengan nyaman menikmati foto
berjudul "A Man Without a Face" yang menghadirkan keseksian laki-laki yang hadir lewat sepotong leher dan separo dada itu.
Tentu saja tidak semua objek foto John adalah manusia laki-laki. Tapi, ketiga foto itu boleh dibilang merupakan jiwa dari
pameran tersebut. Apapun yang dijepret John, kemudian, seperti mewartakan spirit seksualitas lelaki: Menara di Florence, Italia
("Uffizzi Tower", 1996), satu sisi atap gereja dan lampu di Barcelona, Spanyol ("A Lamp Looks at the Church", 1997) hingga
pohon meranggas di Brussels, Belgia ("One Bright Winter Day", 1997).
Lewat "MensScape", John, 31 tahun, agaknya tengah merayakan sebuah obsesi pada satu wilayah ruang yang belum dikenal umum
-untuk tidak mengatakan nyaris tak pernah diakui. Sebuah ruang yang menolak pengkutuban manusia hanya sebatas "hitam" dan
"putih". Sebuah ruang yang berwarna abu-abu...Selamat menikmati! (smu)
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