Indonesian police yesterday said they were considering an offer from the promoters of an upcoming Lady Gaga show proposing to tone down the pop star’s racy performance.
Jakarta police said last week they would not give the green light to the June 3 show after Islamic hardliners threatened chaos if the star entered Indonesia, meaning she has so far been unable to obtain a permit to perform.
“We have received a document outlining an agreement by the promoters Big Daddy, which says Lady Gaga’s concert will respect Indonesian culture,” said Jakarta police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name.
“We will evaluate it, and if we agree, we hope to sign it today [yesterday] and forward it to the national police,” he said.
“They said that Lady Gaga would wear more appropriate clothes and change some of her lyrics and dance moves in a way that will be acceptable in Indonesia,” he said.
The promoters of the performer’s “The Born This Way Ball” show in Jakarta had sold more than 50,000 tickets. They could not be immediately contacted to confirm that they had sent an offer to police.
However, her manager, Troy Carter, said in Singapore on Thursday that the star would not tone down any upcoming concerts, after similar protests from religious hardliners in the Philippines and South Korea.
He said Lady Gaga would rather cancel shows than make changes to appease censors and religious groups.
Asked specifically whether she was prepared to compromise on issues like her wardrobe in Indonesia, Carter said: “That’s not actually true.
Indonesia’s national police force, which has the authority to issue the permit, said last week it would not grant Lady Gaga permission to perform without the Jakarta police’s approval.
Several religious organizations have opposed the concert, with the hardline Islamic Defenders Front vowing to round up 30,000 protesters if the singer tries to enter the country.
However, the police decision last week was met with a public backlash, with critics accusing authorities of buckling to bigotry and intolerance.
It has also triggered debate among the country’s leaders on foreign influences on Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Ninety percent of its 240 million people identify themselves as Muslim.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not