How long can the Indonesian Playboy last?

Adult magazine Playboy makes its appearance in Indonesia beginning this month. Of course the first issue has much less skin compared to its versions in the rest of the world.

In fact, some local traders are saying that this first issue has less nudity than other local porn magazines (no full nudity, no nipples). Some rightly think that Playboy will gradually increase its adult material.

What is surprising about this whole thing is that the Indonesian authorities have allowed for the publication of this magazine, which over the years have come to depict the Western moral decay here in this Muslim country.

No doubt there are some Muslim leaders who are angry over the local version of Playboy, with at least one threatening to use force to get the magazine withdrawn.

However for the men on the street, this new liberal attitude of the government is a good sign but they are also concerned on how the upcoming pornography law will allow for the continued publication of Playboy.

The new law will make illegal any behavior or images that might be considered sexually provocative. Women who bare their shoulders or legs, or artists who use nudity in their work, could be prosecuted for indecency and fined up to 2 billion rupiah (about $220,000) or even jailed for up to 12 years.

Similarly kissing in public would be outlawed, as would any other acts considered pornoaksi, an ill-defined term coined by conservative lawmakers to mean "pornographic acts."

I am sure the local version of Playboy and many other adult magazines in Indonesia will run foul of this new law.

So does this mean that the Indonesian Playboy will have a short lifespan - only to be banned after the new law is passed?

The government has already fired a warning to the publishers. Information minister Sofyan Djalil said:

"The laws that we can use in this case (are) whether there is a publication that violates decency. So, we need to check the content first. Just using the name is insufficient to ban it."

Going by this, Playboy is safe for now based on its mild content in the first issue but it will run into the long arms of the law and the radical Muslims if it wishes to titillate its readers in the coming months.

I think the liberal readers will just have to continue relying on the blackmarket after all.