The
fallacies behind the Lady Gaga saga
Donny
Syofyan ; A Lecturer in The Faculty of Cultural
Sciences
at Andalas University, Padang
SUMBER
: JAKARTA
POST, 24 Mei 2012
The National Police now says it will issue a
concert permit for American pop diva Lady Gaga — but only if the promoters
achieve the monumental task of getting recommendations from the Religious
Affairs Ministry and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).
Police also demanded that concert promoter Big Daddy Entertainment have recommendations from the Tourism Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, the Director General of Immigration over Lady Gaga’s visa and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry (The Jakarta Post, May 22, 2012)
Things are getting fierce, as seen from the support and opposition of the planned Lady Gaga concert in this country. As a matter of fact, the saga of Lady Gaga is large and saturated with fallacies. There remain a lot of improper arguments in reasoning often, resulting in misconceptions or presumptions.
One of the most frequent fallacies that frequently bubbles to the surface is circular reasoning. For example, liberal camps always capitalize on the concept of freedom. From a different perspective, the fundamentalist groups assert there is nothing wrong with freedom so long as it has nothing to do with religious and cultural blasphemy.
While the latter regard Lady Gaga’s music and performances as representing violations due to lewd and pornographic content, the former consider them as pure art without judgment.
The liberals accuse fundamentalists like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) of losing logic and disregarding individual rights.
In contrast, the fundamentalists believe what they are doing is simply to practice amar makruf nahi munkar (call on good deeds and prevent evil deeds), which is at the same time in accordance with the country’s traditional values.
I reckon that the tensions between the supporters and those who are opposed to Lady Gaga performing can never end without the government sagely socializing lewd and pornographic content to the public, based on Law No. 44/2008 on Pornography. Going a bit deeper, despite its controversy, the law does not set out average treatments.
For instance, the law absolutely does not touch on those using koteka in Papua or wearing traditional Javanese and Balinese outfits without covering their aurat (parts of the body that must be showed and covered in Islam), and many others.
The debate over Lady Gaga’s music and performances is different when they are seen from cultural and psychological insights instead of the religious perspective an sich. Strong criticism against her should not be judged from her costumes but against her “blasphemy, devil worshipping, nudity and lewd conduct” instead. Even in the name of freedom and democracy, all cultures come to term with perilous eroticism and blasphemy, including Muslims and Christians.
Massive socialization of lewd and pornographic content greatly serves to ease tensions and fosters common platforms between groups standing against and for Lady Gaga’s music and performances. The failure to do so will give the impression that those fighting for freedom and minority rights are vulnerable to slander or defamation.
The second fallacy is retrospective determinism. Based on this fallacy, the opposing groups could be seen as the tips of the iceberg between liberal groups and hard-liners in Indonesia. Regarding the tensions between the liberals and the fundamentalists as socially constructed and historically unchangeable is really misleading and fallacious.
Such a mind-set would never set the scene for constructive dialogue among the conflicting parties when it comes to controversial issues such as openness to Western culture, music and entertainment.
Frankly speaking, the fallacy comes to the fore because the state lets any particular group exercise control over public security on one side and have a license to say “yes” or “no” over a particular discourse on the other. This tendency will definitely have tremendous effects in discouraging democracy because the government will eventually lose public legitimacy and become powerless.
The government, therefore, needs to restore its function to maintain public security straightforwardly and pave the way for both liberals and hard-liners to start listening to each other.
With the debacle of not doing that, each party will spend their time and energy to debate and prove that each are right, instead of seeking or working on consensus ad idem.
Further, the government and lawmakers are expected to show smart statement and just treatment in response to the mushrooming global culture and a declining domestic heritage. In addition to opening the door for Hollywood and Korean singers coming to this country, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministery, for instance, should also advocate Indonesian arts that are now alarmingly dying, like the wayang orang ngesti pandowo puppetry and baratha in Java, or pasambahan (dialogical tradition) in West Sumatra.
The government’s commitment to developing national culture based on the country’s noble values call for clear-cut policies and huge amounts of money.
Lady Gaga’s clothing problems that are viewed as not representing the Eastern culture could be well handled between the promoters and Lady Gaga’s managers. But if we continue to use a culture of stuttering in looking at the real problems and fallacies behind Lady Gaga, our people will continue to be in the lowest levels of the pyramid. The visible rejection is merely half-hearted since another violation is taking place in a serious manner. ●
Police also demanded that concert promoter Big Daddy Entertainment have recommendations from the Tourism Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, the Director General of Immigration over Lady Gaga’s visa and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry (The Jakarta Post, May 22, 2012)
Things are getting fierce, as seen from the support and opposition of the planned Lady Gaga concert in this country. As a matter of fact, the saga of Lady Gaga is large and saturated with fallacies. There remain a lot of improper arguments in reasoning often, resulting in misconceptions or presumptions.
One of the most frequent fallacies that frequently bubbles to the surface is circular reasoning. For example, liberal camps always capitalize on the concept of freedom. From a different perspective, the fundamentalist groups assert there is nothing wrong with freedom so long as it has nothing to do with religious and cultural blasphemy.
While the latter regard Lady Gaga’s music and performances as representing violations due to lewd and pornographic content, the former consider them as pure art without judgment.
The liberals accuse fundamentalists like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) of losing logic and disregarding individual rights.
In contrast, the fundamentalists believe what they are doing is simply to practice amar makruf nahi munkar (call on good deeds and prevent evil deeds), which is at the same time in accordance with the country’s traditional values.
I reckon that the tensions between the supporters and those who are opposed to Lady Gaga performing can never end without the government sagely socializing lewd and pornographic content to the public, based on Law No. 44/2008 on Pornography. Going a bit deeper, despite its controversy, the law does not set out average treatments.
For instance, the law absolutely does not touch on those using koteka in Papua or wearing traditional Javanese and Balinese outfits without covering their aurat (parts of the body that must be showed and covered in Islam), and many others.
The debate over Lady Gaga’s music and performances is different when they are seen from cultural and psychological insights instead of the religious perspective an sich. Strong criticism against her should not be judged from her costumes but against her “blasphemy, devil worshipping, nudity and lewd conduct” instead. Even in the name of freedom and democracy, all cultures come to term with perilous eroticism and blasphemy, including Muslims and Christians.
Massive socialization of lewd and pornographic content greatly serves to ease tensions and fosters common platforms between groups standing against and for Lady Gaga’s music and performances. The failure to do so will give the impression that those fighting for freedom and minority rights are vulnerable to slander or defamation.
The second fallacy is retrospective determinism. Based on this fallacy, the opposing groups could be seen as the tips of the iceberg between liberal groups and hard-liners in Indonesia. Regarding the tensions between the liberals and the fundamentalists as socially constructed and historically unchangeable is really misleading and fallacious.
Such a mind-set would never set the scene for constructive dialogue among the conflicting parties when it comes to controversial issues such as openness to Western culture, music and entertainment.
Frankly speaking, the fallacy comes to the fore because the state lets any particular group exercise control over public security on one side and have a license to say “yes” or “no” over a particular discourse on the other. This tendency will definitely have tremendous effects in discouraging democracy because the government will eventually lose public legitimacy and become powerless.
The government, therefore, needs to restore its function to maintain public security straightforwardly and pave the way for both liberals and hard-liners to start listening to each other.
With the debacle of not doing that, each party will spend their time and energy to debate and prove that each are right, instead of seeking or working on consensus ad idem.
Further, the government and lawmakers are expected to show smart statement and just treatment in response to the mushrooming global culture and a declining domestic heritage. In addition to opening the door for Hollywood and Korean singers coming to this country, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministery, for instance, should also advocate Indonesian arts that are now alarmingly dying, like the wayang orang ngesti pandowo puppetry and baratha in Java, or pasambahan (dialogical tradition) in West Sumatra.
The government’s commitment to developing national culture based on the country’s noble values call for clear-cut policies and huge amounts of money.
Lady Gaga’s clothing problems that are viewed as not representing the Eastern culture could be well handled between the promoters and Lady Gaga’s managers. But if we continue to use a culture of stuttering in looking at the real problems and fallacies behind Lady Gaga, our people will continue to be in the lowest levels of the pyramid. The visible rejection is merely half-hearted since another violation is taking place in a serious manner. ●
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