Indonesian Men Flogged For Gambling Alongside Amorous Couple

With so many nations around the world sadly still so far behind the times they prohibit recreational gambling it is unsurprising that some of them still employ methods of punishment most countries eschewed many years ago. For example in Indonesia recently three men were publicly flogged for gambling, but rather tellingly they weren't the only people being beaten that day, their fellow victims of state sponsored assault having committed what most of us wouldn't consider a crime at all. It took the British Royal Navy until 1967 to stop canning or flogging junior seamen for infractions of the rules, something the Admiralty had to be prevented to doing by law because they were unwilling to give up what they said was a “useful and efficacious” practice in the training of their sailors simply because it might happen to be a tad barbaric and inhuman. Now over the course of the hundreds of years prior to this ban some men will have been flogged for gambling, something Indonesia still does.

Being flogged for gambling might seem a tad over the top but when it comes to Banda Aceh it's pretty much par for the course as Islamic Sharia Law is the prevailing legal system (the population is 98% Muslim) and it has no truck with such immoral pleasures as gambling, their Indonesian gambling laws prevent any at all. Now this is fine, there must be laws and punishments, but it might carry a little more weight of common sense and morality if alongside the gamblers you weren't also flogging people for PDA.

Would You Prefer Being Flogged For Gambling Or PDA?

Dahlan Silitonga, Tjia Nyuk Hwa and Mr Ridwan may well feel a tad hard done by for getting six, seven and nineteen lashes respectively, they were, after all only enjoying a tombola like game at a children's entertainment complex, not breaking the bank in Monte Carlo or robbing a casino in India, but perhaps not as much as the couple next to them who were not flogged for gambling but for displaying affection for each other in public. Yes, that's right in Bande Aceh they beat you for that.

Now often PDA is utterly nauseating but if you're Indonesian gambling news that in Bande Aceh they arrest you and whip you twenty four times for it is fake news, think again, they really do. What's worse is that they do it in front of a braying audience of several hundred. Disgustingly far too many of the abhorrently large crowd this time were women, evidently enjoying watching another woman get beaten by a hooded man on stage, apparently the #MeToo movement hasn't quite reached Indonesia just yet.

Christians Choose Lash Over Jail Time

Oddly two of those flogged for gambling weren't actually Muslim and not expected to submit to Sharia Law at all, a parallel system for non-Muslims does exist in the region and non-Muslim offenders are given the choice between the two. Unfortunately that system is lengthy, expensive and can result in a somewhat horrific jail sentence so many's the time a Christian in the country will choose the Sharia option instead just to get it over with. Who'd not choose seven lashes over several years in prison?

Obviously it's quite wrong anyone should be physically beaten or flogged for gambling, if you bet on sport in Indonesia the worst punishment you should receive is losing your stake, however the far larger punishment metted out to the unnamed couple who were beaten for daring to show each other affection in public serves only to show how lightly the gamblers got off in this case.....well that and perhaps just how plain nasty, misogynistic, and frankly a tad sado-masochistic all religious laws end up being.