Spending ½ the day with Pak Fon was an interesting experience. He’s a nice guy, and a walking set of contradictions at the same time. He’s a Chinese businessman & a Muslim. Nothing far out of the ordinary there. Many Chinese assimilate to their new religious surroundings.
He’s on a strict beer diet. Eh,,, his doctor diagnosed him with exceptionally high blood cholesterol, and essentially ruled out all food with fat in it. That leaves beer & a few multi-vitamin pills. I have a few friends in the states on roughly the same diet (= Mostly Marines, just back from deployment. (never mind that beer is not allowed in Islam).
Ade, it turns out, is his 2nd wife. His young wife (30). He has 2 children by his older wife (40), whom he splits his time with. That’s funny to me, because the headlines of the newspapers these days are covered with the polygamy issue. President SBY is being pressured to make some tough public decisions about polygamy. Many are calling for him to officially ban the practice as some Muslim countries, such as Tunisia, have done. Tough call, since Islam permits up to 4 wives on the condition that the husband can treat them all equally. There’s the rub. Women, of course, aren’t allowed the same priveledge. The Indonesian Muslim TV evangelical equivalent of James Dobson or Jerry Falwell (Abdullah ‘Aa Gym’ Gymnastiar) set off this controvertial storm last week when it came out that even he took a 2nd wife in secret. His image as the ideal Muslim husband is rapidly deteriorating, as are his TV ratings apparently.