ONE of
Indonesia’s newest brands of beer, Prost, traces its ancestry back to 1948 when
Chandra Djojonegoro, a businessman, started selling a “health tonic”, known as
Anggur Orang Tua, from the back of a bright-blue lorry at night markets in the
coastal city of Semarang. A troupe of dancing dwarves would pull in the
punters, while Djojonegoro peddled shots of what was, in essence, a fortified
herbal wine to fishermen. It kept them warm during the chilly nights in the
Java Sea.
The tonic is
still sold in bottles with distinctive labels depicting an old Chinese man with
a thick white beard. The company that makes it now produces a vast range of
consumer goods, and Prost beer is the latest addition to its range. It is made
in a $50m brewery that opened in August 2015, filled with shiny stainless-steel
machinery from Germany. Thomas Dosy, chief executive of the subsidiary that
produces Prost, says that given Orang Tua’s history in the booze business it
was natural for the company to move into Indonesia’s $1bn-a-year beer market.
It will not
be straightforward. Conservative Muslim groups have become more assertive. Only
months before the brewery opened, the government slapped a ban on the sale of
beer at the small shops where most people buy their groceries. It led to a 13%
slump in sales, according to Euromonitor, a research firm. The government
minister who issued the decree has since been sacked, but his ban remains in
place. And Muslim parties in parliament are still not satisfied. They are
pushing legislation that would ban the production, distribution and consumption
of all alcoholic beverages. Drinkers could face two years in jail.
The law is
unlikely to pass. Muslim parties control less than one-third of the
legislature’s seats. The government is proposing a far more limited law aimed
at curbing the production of toxic home-brews, known as oplosan, which
are responsible for nearly all alcohol-related deaths in Indonesia. Turning
Indonesia dry would be seen by many people as an affront to the cultural
diversity of the sprawling archipelago, which has large Buddhist, Christian and
Hindu minorities, as well as many Muslims who are partial to a cool one.
Brewers
argue that alcohol is not an import from the decadent West, as the puritans
often claim, but has been produced and consumed in Indonesia for at least 700
years. “It is part of the culture of Indonesia,” says Michael Chin, chief
executive of Multi Bintang, the country’s biggest brewer. Indonesians consume
less than one litre of alcohol per head a year, belying Muslim groups’ claims
that booze is creating a health crisis. Still, even without a national
prohibition, Islamists will push for local bans—such as the one in force in
Aceh since 2005 and adopted elsewhere.
Beyond
booze, the state-backed council of clerics, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI),
has in recent years passed edicts condemning everything from homosexual
partnerships to the wearing of Santa hats. Although these have no legal force
under Indonesia’s secular constitution, vigilantes have sometimes used the
edicts to target revellers as well as religious and sexual minorities. Partly at
the MUI’s urging, parliament has passed sweeping anti-pornography laws, which
some Indonesians see as a threat to artistic and cultural liberties. Muslim
groups are petitioning the courts to interpret the law in a way that would
criminalise extramarital sex. They are also making more use of laws against
blasphemy—notably in the trial against the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent.
Still, for a
country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia is remarkably
permissive. Night spots in Jakarta, the capital, and tourist magnets such as
the island of Bali have their raunchy sides. In Semarang, Mr Dosy predicts
steady growth in domestic sales of 8-9% per year, buoyed by a growing number of
middle-class tipplers. Most Indonesians, proud of their tradition of tolerance,
will be hoping that he is right.
The
Economist
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