Sex toys, pornography top list of seized items

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Sex toys and pornography dominated the list of goods confiscated by the directorate of customs and excise in the first quarter of the year.

The directorate's first-quarter performance report, which was made available to The Jakarta Post over the weekend, indicated that the agency's offices throughout the country managed to foil a total of 113 violations of export-import regulations during the period, including smuggling attempts, underinvoicing and illegal goods shipment.

Of the 113 violations, the import of sex toys, pornographic video cassette discs (VCDs), digital video discs (DVDs) and pornographic magazines, which are all considered illegal in the country, ranked first on the list, with 46 cases.

Next on the list was the import of home appliances and electronic goods, with 19 cases, followed by the illegal export of natural resource commodities, such as coral and logs, with 11 cases.

One major case mentioned in the quarterly report is the attempted smuggling of logs worth Rp 5 billion, which was foiled by the customs office in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan on March 12.

The report, however, did not mention the smuggling of assembled microlight airplane from Germany through Tanjung Priok port on Feb. 19. The customs office foiled the smuggling, confiscated the aircraft and proudly invited the media to take photos of them.

No custom official was available over the weekend to explain why that smuggling case was not mentioned in the quarterly report, or where the confiscated aircraft is now.

The report only mentioned one case of textile smuggling, which the office managed to foil.

This is despite the fact that the Indonesian Textile Association warned early this year that about 1,400 vessels from Singapore and Hong Kong would arrive in Indonesia in February and March to smuggle textile products into the country illegally.

Another strange thing was that, according to the report, the customs offices in Tanjung Balai Karimun, Riau, and Palembang, South Sumatra -- which are notorious as favored gateways for smugglers to bring their goods into the country -- made no goods seizures at all during the period. Are the ports now free from smugglers?

Commenting on the report, chairman of the National Economic Recovery Committee (KPEN) Sofyan Wanandi called on the office to focus more on strategic commodities than petty smuggling of goods such as pornography and sex toys.

"In cracking down on smuggling, they should concentrate on the smuggling of strategic commodities that have a direct impact on the Indonesian economy such as rice or sugar," he said.