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Indonesian Woman Arrested for Wearing Bikini in Lockdown Protest

Dinar Candy
source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSG3xS7B7r8/

A female disc jockey and minor celebrity in Indonesia named Dinar Candy has been detained for allegedly violating the country’s anti-pornography law, as well as the law on electronic information and transactions, because a video was uploaded of her wearing a bikini in public.

Dinar (28), whose real name is Dinar Miswari, had worn the red bikini on a sidewalk in the Lebak Bulus neighbourhood of South Jakarta on Wednesday, August 4, to protest against the government’s Public Activity Emergency Restrictions, a semi-lockdown policy, known locally by the acronym PPKM and recently extended to August 9. The video shows most pedestrians ignoring her attention-seeking antics.

Wearing sunglasses and a face mask in addition to her two-piece swimsuit, Dinar displayed a sign that read, “I’m stressed because PPKM has been extended.” Two days earlier, she had posted that she would go public in a bikini to protest if PPKM was extended.

The bikini video was uploaded to her Instagram account, @dinar_candy, and tagged the account of President Joko Widodo. The video was later deleted. Dinar had accompanied the post with a caption advising her followers, “Don’t imitate this action, I’m stressed [and] looking for an outlet!!

South Jakarta Police Chief Azis Andriansyah later said Dinar had been declared a suspect “in the alleged crime of pornography”, as reported by CNN Indonesia.

Police also detained Dinar’s younger sister, Ajay, who allegedly recorded the video and uploaded it to Instagram. Officers said Ajay was being questioned as witness to find out her motive in making the recording.

Dinar Candy wearing bikini
Dinar Candy wearing a bikini. Censored in order to avoid prevent pornography dissemination accusations

Yusri said police were studying pornographic elements of the case. He said Indonesia is a “Pancasila state” and sensitive to matters related to decency. Pancasila is Indonesia’s state ideology and has five principles, none of which ban pornography, let alone bikinis. Pancasila was announced by founding president Sukarno, who had multiple wives and was described by some scholars as a notorious womanizer, and collected art that included statues of naked women.

“We all know that what we need to understand is that our country is a Pancasila state. We have the strongest religious moral norms in our country,” said Yusri.

Wearing a bikini is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country’s ambiguously worded anti-pornography law, which was enacted in 2008, means people can be arrested for actions considered as violations of public decency and morality.

Police on the resort island of Bali have not followed the example of the South Jakarta Police by arresting women wearing bikinis.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) recently announced that televised coverage of female athletes wearing bikinis and swimsuits at the Tokyo Olympics should not be censored by local networks.

This article was updated at 8am on 6 August to reflect that Dinar has been named a suspect.

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