Nyepi rings in Balinese new year 1932

The new year 1932 has just begun in the Balinese 12-month lunar calendar. Nyepi, the Balinese new year celebration, provides an opportunity for spiritual cleansing and renewal. A day of silence is observed on Hari Raya Nyepi (New Year’s Day), when tradition dictates that no one works, leaves the house or even cooks a meal. Even Bali’s busy international airport, with over 2.2 million foreign arrivals in 2009, closes for this one day each year.

On the day of Nyepi, Bali’s people are meant to observe a full 24 hours from sunrise to the sunrise in silent meditation, spending time at home with family. Some Balinese also take this restful opportunity for a cleansing fast.

In anticipation of Nyepi, which usually falls in March or April, Balinese practice a day of ceremony cleansing rituals called Melasti when symbols of deities and ancestors are taken to beaches, rivers and springs.

New Year’s Eve brings Tawur Kesanga, wherein each village executes more mid-day cleansing rituals to right the balance between God, people and the natural environment.

Just before sundown on the day before Nyepi, each of Bali’s neighborhood organizations called banjars parades homemade effigies large and small through the streets. Some reach several meters high. These effigies, called ogoh-ogoh, are built of paper mache and intricately painted in a community hall over the month prior to their public display.

Youthful teams are recruited from each banjar to carry the ogoh-ogoh through the streets, accompanied by clanging and ringing of traditional Balinese gamelan music.

This year about three dozen ogoh-ogoh from area banjars were brought for display in the central football field in Ubud before being paraded through the streets at sunset. As darkness fell, some of the scarier characters looked increasingly sinister, but a festive community vibe filled the air. Fireworks continued late into the clear, starry night, until a day of silence began at sunrise.

Photos by Glenn Chickering

Obama Postpones Visit to Indonesia

With a controversial healthcare reform legislation vote looming, President Barack Obama has again postponed his visit to Indonesia. News reports suggest that Obama will plan a visit for June 2010.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-18/obama-postpones-indonesia-trip-allowing-china-to-arrive-first.html

Obama Visit Offers Visionary Opportunity

Barack Obama will visit Indonesia, one of his boyhood homes, next week for the first time as President. His visit to Jakarta, and a rumored stop in Bali, are scheduled for a tour March 21-26 that will also include stops in Guam and Australia.

Originally planned for March 20-22, Obama's trip has been delayed by wrangling in the US Congress over healthcare reform legislation.

As one American commentator, Jennie S. Bev, who also spent time in the Menteng area of Jakarta puts it, this is an historic opportunity for Indonesian-US bilateral relations. Indonesians should seize this rare opportunity to capture Obama's--and the world's--attention with "class and clarity".

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/15/the-boy-menteng.html

As a catalyst for change, Obama can bring focused international attention to Indonesia's challenges among the "right people and institutions". Bev cites human rights, human and drug trafficking, terrorism, free trade, education and US investment as among these pressing issues.

I would also add environmental concerns and public health to this list deserving attention and cooperation. Challenges across all of these areas pose problems and require solutions not just within Indonesia's borders but spreading regionally and globally.

Here's hoping that Obama's visit will contribute to closer relations between the world's third and fourth largest countries.

What's love got to do with it?

Religions sanction bonds of marriage without always requiring government involvement. Islam’s recognition of non-state-sanctioned marriage has become increasingly controversial as a late in Indonesia.

Islam recognizes marriages performed by religious clergy and observed by witnesses, even if they are not registered with the government. These unofficial marriages, called nikah siri, are banned by the 1974 marriage law, but carried out regularly without penalty to perpetrators nonetheless.

Islamic men are allowed to take up to four wives. In practice, some of these wives are often underage. The Ministry’s proposed change in the law would not ban polygamy, but it would require that all wives names be listed on official registries.

The country's largest Islamic organizations have staked their positions. Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Muhamadiyah both support the Religious Affairs Ministry’s proposal to implement penalties of fines and jail time for violators of the ban on nikah siri. Leadership of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), on the other hand, opposes the ban, arguing that criminal sanctions are inappropriate for those who do not publicly proclaim and celebrate their marriages.

Opponents of unofficial marriage raise concerns about vulnerability of women and children under such as arrangement, including their property and inheritance. Women’s rights groups support the proposal, saying that women are too often victimized in unofficial marriages. First wives are not always consulted upon subsequent unofficial marriage, while unregistered wives are left without legal protections.

Whereas marriage in the eyes of the state can cost as little as Rp. 30,000 (a little over US$3), violators of the new law would face fines of up to 5 million Rupiah and up to three months behind bars.

According to local news reports, while the Ministry supports the ban, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali argued that nikah siri and the practice of polygamy that it supports are perfectly acceptable. Suryadharma said that marriages should not be secret, but they are legal so long as Islamic clergy conduct the wedding and there are witnesses. He compared unofficial marriage with buying a car.

The minister’s car analogy, while it may initially seem distastefully dismissive of a relation so sacred as marriage, is instructive. If the car is used for illegal activities, such as smuggling, after is it purchased, the maker of the car should not be found at fault.

Similarly, Islamic religious authorities should not be held responsible for transgressions, such as abuse of a spouse, that are committed within marriage.

This supports the government’s role, though, in registering marriage. Just as registering one’s car with the state helps society hold the owner responsible for crimes committed with his vehicle, so registering a marriage helps society hold responsible a husband who abuses his marriage bond.