Police crackdown on porn VCDs gets mixed responses

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The newly appointed Yogyakarta police chief Brig. Gen. Yohanes Wahyu has hailed the recent police crackdown on pornographic VCDs in the city as a success, despite a skeptical public response to the operation.

Wahyu told a press conference at Yogyakarta police headquarters on Wednesday that police had arrested 52 owners of video compact disc (VCD) rental houses for 'providing' their customers with pornographic VCDs and confiscated 4,178 pornographic VCDs during the operation.

"The suspects are now being questioned," he said, adding that police charged the suspects with violating the law on motion pictures No. 8 and Article 282 of the criminal code. These charges carry a maximum penalty of five years jail and a Rp 5 million fine.

Wahyu said that the raid, codenamed "Pasopati Operation", was conducted in response to Governor Hamengkubuwono X's order to police to deal with the pornographic VCDs circulating in Yogyakarta.

The Governor said the police should be able to free Yogyakarta from pornography; otherwise, parents would always be uneasy about the children.

The number of VCD rentals has grown rapidly in Yogyakarta, dubbed the "City of Students" in reference to the thousands of students from across the country who study there.

Police records indicate there are at least 165 VCD rental facilities, mostly located in Yogyakarta mayoralty and Sleman regency, where the bulk of universities and schools are to be found.

However, a reliable source told The Jakarta Post that there were more than 300 VCD rental businesses in the city.

An owner of a VCD rental business on Jl. Kaliurang expressed his skepticism over the police's move, saying that they should arrest the suppliers rather than arresting VCD rental owners.

"If the police are really serious, they could easily catch the suppliers. They regularly come to my rental business and others to offer new collections of pornographic products," the owner, who asked for anonymity, said.

"I don't think that the police operation is serious because all the VCD rental owners pay police or military members to (illicitly) back their business. Even rentals which never provide pornographic stuff still have to pay them for protection as most of the VCDs are pirated products, he said.

"The "backers" always leak information about police plans to raid VCD rental businesses. In this way we can hide our pornographic collections. Having the "backers" also guarantees that we won't be jailed for renting pornographic VCDs," he said.

He said that "backers" usually helped VCD rental owners to avoid police custody whenever they were apprehended during an operation.

"Of course we still have to bribe the police officers once we are caught," he said, "Each rental owner usually gives the police between Rp 4 million and Rp 14 million whenever he or she is nabbed."

Another rental owner said that most of those involved in the business in Yogyakarta had pornographic collections. "Police are aware of this."

"Rental businesses which do not provide their customers with pornographic pieces get between approximately Rp 300,000 and 500,000 per day, while those providing pornographic VCDs can earn at least Rp 700,000 a day," said the businessman, who also requested anonymity.

Sociologist Susetiawan from Gadjah Mada University also expressed his doubt over the police's maneuver. "Everybody knows that most police officers are corrupt."

"Many are aware that such an operation is just like a reminder to VCD rentals owners of their obligation to pay regular service money to the police," he said.

Susetiawan also suggested that the definition of pornography be reviewed. Without pornographic VCDs or video tapes, people could freely watch "various pictures and movies" on the Internet. "So what?"

In the future the government should give regular sex education to teenagers in order to provide them with a better and proper understanding of sex, he said.

"When they are mature enough in understanding sex, then we don't need to be worried about what the government calls pornography," he said.