Playboy Indonesia
» Prudes & Puritans
Playboy’s fairly chaste Indonesian edition continues to attract protests and abuse of those associated with it. But …
Goenawan Mohamad, the founder of Tempo, an Indonesian newsweekly, and a distinguished columnist, says Mr. Arnada has fashioned a magazine so tame that it would be absurd to ban it.
Although he supported the right of Playboy to publish, Mr. Mohamad said he found it difficult to be really enthusiastic about the magazine’s cause. “Playboy is a well-known magazine because of women’s lack of dress,’’ he said. “What’s the fuss?’’
Perhaps the issue isn’t the magazine’s supposed salaciousness:
For Mr. Arnada, 41, who has a background in publishing entertainment tabloids and producing horror movies, all the fuss reflects fears about the intrusion of Western culture. “Why else do they keep shouting about Playboy?” he asked.
A widely distributed publication in Indonesia, Red Light, which is owned by one of the biggest Indonesian media conglomerates, Jawa Pos, is far more provocative, Mr. Arnada said.
Printed on crude newsprint and sold on the street by hawkers for the equivalent of 20 cents, Red Light carries advertisements for prostitutes and their phone numbers, features photos of naked men and women and is festooned with sexually provocative headlines.
Playboy Indonesia: Modest Flesh Meets Muslim Faith
