Word: pelaihari
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...into an Inul Daratista show is like trying to storm the ramparts of Helm's Deep?it's musty, dark, smoky, crowded and the mob seems possessed by a demonic, or at least lascivious, force. The young men have traveled many kilometers to the one-mosque town of Pelaihari in Indonesia's South Kalimantan province to see the country's hottest and most controversial dangdut singer. They're rowdy, they're eager and, in clear defiance of the laws of physics, all 10,000 of them want in, now, through the soccer stadium's single narrow entrance. The snarling soldiers...
...people have placed phenomenal demands on the country's one-and-only pop sensation. "I'm very tired, very happy and a bit depressed," she says over lunch in Pelaihari. Last night she finished a late perfomrance in the city of Melak, took a three-hour motorboat trip, a 1 1/2-hour flight and then an hour-long drive to make it to Pelaihari. It's her 11th show in 11 cities in 11 days, the heart of a brutal if-this-is-Monday-it-must-be-Balikpapan tour of the Kalimantan region. With reddened eyes and leftover makeup...
...meet a glad-handing official for lunch in Pelaihari, Inul appears spent after a night of "drilling," as her dance has been termed by the Indonesian media. Yet one mention of her detractors is enough to energize her. "Write this down," she commands. "The MUI should realize that Indonesia is not a Muslim country, it's a democratic country." Inul, who says she prays daily, insists that her art doesn't clash with her Islamic beliefs and suspects the religious hierarchy castigates her because the real threats to Indonesia's fragile morality, particularly corrupt officials, are too dangerous to attack...
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