Unspun

Poor Nadine Chandrawinata. As if getting flack for her silly answers in the Miss Universe contest, and failing to make the top 20 contestants were not humiliation enough, she now faces a police report against her by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

The FPI wants her charged for indecency since she donned on a –horrors — 2-piece bikini!!! at the peagent. They should just give the poor girl a rest.

The hypocrisy of the first charge is evident everywhere you look in Indonesia. A copy of Maxim was lying around in my office the other day and I thumbed through it. It was full of women more scantily and less tastefully dressed than Nadine, and posed much much more provocatively than the Miss Universe organizers would ever allow. Yet, if their publication name is not Playboy, they publish with impunity and attract not even a squeak from the likes of the FPI.

This leads many to conclude that organizations like the FPI are only good at disruption and incapable of any constructive activities. if the FPI had a constructive bone beneath their jilbabs and turbans they could put all that zeal and fervour to good use. Like helping the victims at Pangadaran. Or running programs to alleviate poverty.

But if their aims are not that lofty they can always try to prove that the likes of Nadine and the Miss Universe are headed in the wrong direction. They could organize their own Miss Universe Fundamentalist or field their own candidate for Miss Universe. Let’s see how far they can get if they even try to do this.

Its all very easy to pull down things but try building them. If there are any FPI sympathisers out there reading this pass ithis message to them and let them know that the rest of us would love to see them do something worthwhile rather than clog the streets with their protests and pollute our news channels with protestations.