Lawmaker caught watching porn resigns

JAKARTA (AP):

An Indonesian law-maker who helped pass a tough anti-pornography law resigned yesterday after he got caught watching sexually explicit videos on his computer during a parliamentary debate.

The scandal has transfixed this predominantly Muslim nation since a local photo-journalist filmed Arifinto, a member of the staunchly Islamic Prosperous Justice Party, gazing at the downloaded porn sites last Friday.

The blurred images have been published on the front pages of newspapers almost daily, and reaction has set alight social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Some commenters said Arifinto should be prose-cuted under the anti-porno-graphy law that took effect in 2008 despite opposition from the public and some members of the government.

Fifty-year-old Arifinto, who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name, apologised to his constituents yesterday and told reporters during a hastily arranged news conference he was stepping down from Parliament immediately.

"It's my decision," said the father of five, insisting he was not acting on the orders of his party. "Nobody tried to coerce me."