Ariel gets three and a half years in prison

The District Court of Bandung, West Java, today sentenced Nazril Irham a.k.a Ariel, Singer of Pop Band Peterpan, to three and a half years in jail, and  pay a Fine of Rp 250 million for distributing pornographic material on the internet.

This sentence is much lower than what the Prosecutors have requested i.e. five years based on the Pornography Law and the Criminal Law.

Ariel has been detained by the Police in Jakarta since he surrendered on 22 June 2010 over two video that allegedly show him having sex with TV presenters Luna Maya and Cut Tary. His prison sentence shall be reduced by the time he has spent in detention.

The sentence was protested by around 1,000 members of fanatic Islam group who demanded that Ariel should be sentenced to five years as demanded by the Prosecutors.

I hope that the judges passed its verdict merely based on their own consideration and not because they were pressured by anyone.

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How to Apologize like a Celebrity

In the last few weeks, two famous celebrities i.e. Cut Tary and Luna Maya have offered apologies for the circulation of Videos showing women who look like them having sex with Ariel the singer of the band Peterpan.

Tary admitted that she played in the sex video, but Luna denied. While Ariel never say anything to the public since the Police arrested him on on 22 June, on charges of violation of the Pornography Law.

The way they apologized reminded me of an article that I read in the Toastmasters magazine titled "How to Apologize Like a Celebrity" written by Chris Witt (www.lifeafterpowerpoint.com) about five most common ways celebrities apologize :

Blame the Other Person:
Start by saying sorry then shift the focus from your actions to the other person's reactions. Make it sound as if the other person's thin-skinned sensibilities, outdated notions of fairness and decency, or failure to understand what you really meant - not your misdeeds - are the real culprits. The common ploy lets you sound like you're apologizing without requiring you to express regret. If you're clever enough, you may even get people to apologize to you.

Offer an Excuse:
If you can't blame someone else, you can always blame extenuating circumstances, you can point a finger at any number of situations beyond your control : the weather, the economy, the fickleness of computers, the sorry state of the world we live in or the stress of having to much to do.

Use the Passive Voice:
The passive voice is a key to apologizing like a celebrity. For example, say: "Mistakes were made" not "I made a mistake". Say: "There was an error of judgement" not "I was wrong".

Delay as Long as Possible:
You may feel inclined - decent people often do - to offer an apology the moment you realize you've done something wrong. Avoid saying anything at all. Wait and see how things play out. Maybe people will forget about what you did, or maybe someone else will do something even wore. Then you're off the hook.

Hide Your Feelings:
If you feel remorse, regret or even guilt because of what you've done - people with a conscience often do,
make sure no one knows it. Make apology the way sincere people do, accept responsibility, offer to make amends. Ask for understanding and forgiveness. But make it sound as if you don't believe what you're saying.
Speak in a monotone, avoid eye contact, and never reveal a heartfelt emotion.

Now that we know how celebrities do it, we will surely be able to discover some more appropriate words and actions that will enable us to receive Forgiveness.

Who'll Benefit from the Sex Video?

It has been around one month since the media reported about the circulation of a Video showin sexual intercourse between a man who looked like vocalist of pop band Peterpan, Ariel, and two female who looked like model and presenters i.e. his girlfriend Luna Maya, and Cut Tari.

All of this time there is nothing new about this case, the Police had only named Ariel as Suspect and although both women have been questioned time and again, but their statuses still remain Witnesses. And few days ago the Police announced that they have named eight persons who are involved in the distribution of the video as suspects. This very slow investigation is really very surprising if we compare it with the Police's recent successes in eliminating (= killing) alleged Terrorists.

Like any other news about celebrities, the development of this case has been very closely monitored and reported by the news media almost every hour of the day, as if it is the most important thing in Indonesia right now.

As a result, people pay more attention to this rubbish news than to other news which are far more important for them like the 10 to 18% Electricity Hike starting 1 July, followed by announcements about plans to increase Tariffs for : Toll Road, Transportation, Car Taxes. Besides, there are also other news about the rising prices of daily commodities, about Cylinder Gas explosions, Corruptions, etc., etc., etc. .................

Considering the above, I felt that the Sex Video have distracted public's attentions from what are actually much more important for them, and therefore saving the government from all the troubles, i.e. massive public protest, that might have been caused by those more important news.

Further, the Sex Video news benefited the print and electronic News Media who got more viewers and readers, thereby attracting more advertisements.

Furthermore, the Sex Video news benefited Ariel, Peterpan, the recording company and distributors of the band's new album which is planned to be release sometime in the near future.

Filtering the Internet

The recent controversy over sex video allegedly starred by celebrities i.e Ariel, singer of  pop band Peterpan, his girl friend model/presenter i.e. Luna Maya, and model/presenter/actress Cut Tari has re-inspired the government to regulate the use of the internet.

 
Last Thursday, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Tifatul Sembiring told news reporters that he plan to draft of new decree in consultation with members of the House of Representatives (DPR) after his earlier draft was canceled due to widespread protests.

Further, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) has stated that Indonesia should protect itself against the Internet. 

I am not really sure whether such decree would be effective to prevent Indonesians from downloading and/or uploading pornography from the internet considering the internet is almost a border-less territory.

Related news report :
- Indonesia needs Internet Blacklist to stop Porn : Tifatul

- Indonesia must Resist Internet 'Frenzy' : President
- SBY : We must act on webs threat

Sex Video and Character Assasination

Singer of Pop band Peterpan, Ariel, and his model/presenter lover Luna Maya have finally broken their silence over the Sex Video Scandal that has been widely exposed by the news media last week.

Ariel and Luna denied that they starred in the Sex Video. The Jakarta Globe quoted Ariel as saying that certain people has exposed the Sex Video in connection with his band's plan to release their latest album.    He therefore suspect that there must be a character assassination attempt in this case. 

This is not the first time that I heard the phrase Character Assassination, but I am not really sure about the meaning. So, I Googled the phrase and found the following explanation on Wikipedia :
 
Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation. It may involve exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person. It is a form of defamation and can   be a form of ad hominem argument.
For living individuals targeted by character assassination attempts, this may result in being rejected by his community, family, or members of his or her living or work environment. Such acts are often difficult to reverse or rectify, and the process is likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for historical figures, for many centuries after their death.
In practice, character assassination may involve doublespeak, spreading of rumors, innuendo or deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the subject's morals, integrity, and reputation. It may involve spinning information that is technically true, but that is presented in a misleading manner or is presented without the necessary context. For example, it might be said that a person refused to pay any income tax during a   specific year, without saying that no tax was actually owed due to the person having no income that year.

A person who committed Defamation using the internet can be charged with violating the Electronic Information and Transaction Law (ITE) Articles 27 and 45 with maximum punishment of six years in jail and/or maximum fine of One Billion Rupiah. Whilst Defamation in general is governed by the Penal Code (KUHP) Articles 310 and 311 with maximum punishment of nine months in jail.

Further, those who play the starring roles in a Sex Video can be charged with violating the Pornography Law.

Considering the above, it would be very interesting to know the result of Police investigation on the Sex Video case.

Ariel, Luna, Cut Look-A-like

Caricature : Courtesy of The Jakarta Post.

Golkar and Peterporn

In the last few days, there are two hot topics that have been the focus of the Indonesian media.

The first one is the demand made by the member of the ruling coalition the Golkar Party that each of the 560 members of the House of Representative (DPR) to be given an "Aspiration Fund" amounting to 15 Billion Rupiah each year.
This demand has been strongly protested by the public including other political parties of the ruling coalition.

The second one is the porn-video showing sex-intercourse between Ariel, the vocalist of a well known  Pop band Peterpan, and two well known actresses presenter, model: Luna Maya, and Cut Tari. According to rumors Ariel has made video of his sex-adventures with 32 other women, that people on Twitter have given him the nickname Peterporn. Ariel and Luna denied having played in the sex video, however a telematic expert said that both of them played in the video..

I am not sure whether the above two hot topics just accidentally popped up together at almost the same time.
But one thing for sure is that the Peterporn video has diverted public's attention from Golkar Party's demand for Aspiration Fund.