When Kerenina Sunny Halim was selected as Miss Indonesia 2009 last July, the media reported that the first things that she wanted to do was to learn to speak the Indonesian language and culture. And now, as Kerenina participates in the Miss World contest 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa, a media in that country reported that she belongs to The Family International, an organization that originated from The Children of God i.e an American religious cult which is quite popular in the '70s and '80s for its members' child and sexual abuse scandals.
For more details on the above, please click here and here.
Considering that Kerenina is representing Indonesia in the above contest, I hope that she would clarify this matter very soon.
Photo: Courtesy of Warta Kota.
15 comments:
if you have any spare chicks from Indonesia send one over for stugod will ya, its bloody cold over here ha ha
yup, she is beautiful,
i admit that.
@Stuart,
Unfortunate it doesn't work that way with 'chicks', you've got to come here man.
@Kami,
Yes, inspite what they said about her, she is beautiful indeed.
Whats a Miss Indonesia without a little controversy eh?
Pj,
Yes you are right. Even if she won at Johannesburg there would always be some people who would protest.
Harry...
Does she really need to clarify this? And, if she does, for what reason?
Are you suggesting that all the children of the cult were victims of sexual and other abuse, and therefore she needs to clarify whether she was a victim in its new incarnation as The Family International?
Is it now going to be a prerequisite of these kinds of competitions that one must divulge their religious preferences and then justify them?
SBY's affiliation with the TNI and the abuses that they have committed over the years did not preclude him from the beauty contest which is the presidency of the Republic of Indonesia. And, if I am not mistaken he has not been all that forthcoming with respect to clarifying all of his decisions throughout that participation either :D
She may be beautiful, but a little bit daft as well obviously. (The best we can hope for she doesn't really know what the cult stands for)
Rob,
The South African media article, that I've copied, quoted The Jakarta Globe's interview with Karenina in which she acknowledged that she is a member of the religious cult Family Intern'l which according to said media is transformation of the Children of God which was involved in child abuse and sexual scandal in the '70s and '80s. Their scandalous cases was prosecuted in the US. And they also faced some problems here in Indonesia.
In this regards, I believed that Kerenina's clarification is needed to avoid any inconveniences if she wants to pursue carrier here.
Re: SBY
When Megawati was President, she can instruct investigation on SBY's aleged involvement in the 17 July 1996 attack on her PDI party
but she never did, she even maintained his position as Coord. Mins. of Politics, Law & Security.
In my humble opinion, this means that the allegation was not true.
In this case, how can other people be expected to ask for SBY's clarification on allegation that was unclear?
Colson,
I hope that the religious cult that she in now involved with is totally different from its notorious embryo.
Wow! Miss Indonesia is gorgeous. I really hope she's not in the cult of the Family International.
@Ann Martin,
Yes she is gorgeous and she admitted to media here Jakarta Globe that she is a member of the Cult.
Harry...
There are those that claim it is no longer what it once was, is that sufficient? Or does she have to go on the record and clarify this for herself?
Have there been any claims about the new organization regarding sexual abuse of children? If not, then what is there to clarify?
Are you suggesting that the organization is operating in Indonesia under false pretenses and as such should be banned and the people involved prosecuted and jailed?
Or is the suggestion simply that some people have to explain their beliefs and affiliations while others do not?
The SBY point still stands. Just because Megawati did not ask for an explanation does not mean he does not owe one. In any event, I was not referring to that particular skeleton ;)
BTW...I am just being a pain in the arse (AKA playing the devil's advocate) in tossing out questions that go to the heart of freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and just the freedom to enjoy Indonesia's hard-earned democracy...
Rob,
I enjoyed debating with you.
People can join any Cult as long as it is legal and he/she is representing him/her self.
If she is not a public figure, there would not be any problem.
Re: the organization, as long as it commit no crime there would not be any problem.
PS: as someone who is familiar with Indonesian & its people, I believe you understand that most of our people are still bound by the so called "eastern culture" (budaya ketimuran) which is based on collectivism, thus different from western liberal culture which is based on individualism. I am sure you haven't forgotten that we've just experienced liberal democracy 11 years ago.
Harry...
;)
Thanks Rob.
I hope that you'll update your blog soon.
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