Police crackdown on porn VCDs gets mixed responses

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.