Indonesian Lawmaker Quits Parliament Over Porn
An Indonesian lawmaker from a conservative Islamic party resigned on Monday after he was photographed looking at pornography on his tablet computer in parliament.
Despite an outcry against him on Twitter, Arifinto insisted that nobody had pressured him to resign and that he was stepping down from the House of Representatives "for the sake of my and my party's honor".
"I will also improve myself by... reciting the Koran, seeking advice from clergy, giving alms to the poor and doing other good things to earn glory in this life and thereafter," he said at a televised news conference.
Arifinto, who represents the conservative Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was caught on camera on Friday looking at a pornographic image on the tablet, which he was holding just under his table in the legislative chamber.
The photograph, first posted on a local news website, sparked uproar on the Twitter micro blogging site over the weekend and the House ethics committee launched an inquiry.
Arifinto, who goes by one name, had said he had unintentionally opened an email link that led to the image. But the photographer who took the shot said the lawmaker was watching a porn video.
Mainly Muslim Indonesia has been scandalized in recent months by the online release of homemade sex videos involving three popular celebrities, fueling proposals to filter the Internet.
Canadian company Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, started filtering porn in Indonesia in January at the demand of Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring.
Sembiring is also a member of the PKS, which is part of the ruling coalition.
Source: Agence France Presse
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