My dance immoral? Alhamdulillah No! Dangdut music and gender politics in contemporary Indonesdia

Indonesia 2003. Five years following the fall of President Suharto's New Order regime. Although now governed by the once so seemingly popular Megawati Sukarnoputri, the country had not yet been able to economically or politically stabilize itself. Tremendous unemployment, flaring religious and political conflicts, and increasing corruption scandals delineated the times. Despite the troublesome situation, however, a young woman singer and dancer of dangdut music, Inul Daratista, succeeded in conquering national and international media coverage. With her so-called drill dance she contributed to one of the most heated debates. The "sexy" performer became talk of the day. Within a short time span, a national debate exploded among politicians, Islamic clerics, celebrities, and local womens groups on the question whether or not her performance was morally acceptable. The debate on Inul Daratista, enraged, amused, entertained, bored, and distracted many Indonesians. This chapter intends to explicate where this variety of reactions came from the ways in which they were represented, what ideologies lay behind these representations, and how they could be placed within the changing political landscape. Zooming in on the two main protagonists in the debate, namely Inul Daratista and Islamic "King of dangdut music", Rhoma Irama, I demonstrate how the debate actually mirrors tensions between, on the one side, holding on to New Order paradigms of gender relations, and on the other, the search for alternative meanings of gender relations in post-New Order times. More broadly, this chapter explores the dangdut genre" in its sound, lyrics, and performances" as a useful tool in teasing out complexities of Indonesian contemporary politics.