HER left hand flitting between the BlackBerry and Starbucks cappuccino on the table before her, Julia Perez spoke with rising urgency into her mobile phone.
The singer, actress, model — and soon, perhaps, politician — whose overt use of her sexuality has won her legions of fans in Indonesia but also condemnation from social conservatives, needed a traditional dress, a kebaya, she told her designer at the
other end of the line. The ruler of Solo, in central Java, was conferring a title on her at a formal ceremony, she explained.
"Et voilà!" said Perez, who speaks in a mix of Indonesian, English and French. "It's a big honour for me."
Since returning to Indonesia three years ago after a decade in France and the Netherlands, Perez, 30, better known as Jupe, has become one of the nation's most sought-after celebrities. In a society increasingly polarised between political Islam and Western-style openness, Perez has led the charge one way with music videos celebrating female sexuality and frank talk about sex. Her bestselling album, Kamasutra, included a free condom, which earned her a ban on performing in some cities outside Jakarta, the capital.
Perez was rebuked after announcing her intention to stand in a local election in December in Pacitan, a town in east Java that also happens to be the hometown of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Officials proposed changing regional election laws to forbid candidates with "moral flaws" from running. But critics in the news media and on social-networking websites counter-attacked, pointing out that Indonesian politicians are hardly known for their ethics.
"So what if I'm sexy?" Perez said. "You can still eat tomorrow if you see me and find me sexy. But if I steal your money, tomorrow you cannot eat and tomorrow you cannot go to school and tomorrow you'll be a hopeless man."
Perez is both excited by the possibilities of Indonesia's young democracy and aware of its limitations.
"Maybe 30 per cent of the people feel this is a democracy," she said, suggesting that poverty and lack of opportunities still prevent 70 per cent of the population from enjoying meaningful options.
Born Yuli Rachmawati, the eldest of three sisters in a household led by a single mother, she often ate only rice with fried shallots. Growing up under Suharto, the longtime military ruler who fell in 1998, she saw little for herself here.
"Finding enough to eat was our only dream," she said. She joked that she would now be hawking gado-gado, a traditional dish often sold on the street, if she had not befriended a slightly older Indonesian woman as she was about to finish high school.
