It’s not just conservative Muslims who don’t like the Playboy brand, some Balinese Hindus are less than enthused as well.

On 13th June young men and women from various Hindu groups staged a demonstration in Denpasar against the presence of the offices of Playboy in Bali (see Playboy, 2nd Edition).

Our attendance at this demo is done to categorically reject the Playboy office being located in Bali.
(Kehadiran kami dalam aksi simpatik ini bertujuan untuk menolak dengan keras keberadaan kantor majalah Playboy ke Bali.)

said I. Made Suarjana, the Coordinator of the “Aksi Simpatik Aliansi Hindu Muda Antimedia Porno”. He further explained that although Bali opposed the RUU APP, the anti-pornography bill, this did not mean that pornographic magazines were permitted on the island of the gods. Playboy, he added, was an example of international capitalism’s power:

Bali was not built by global capitalism but by the teachings of our forefathers and the Hindu religion.
(Bali dibangun bukan dengan kapitalisme global tapi dibangun dengan ajaran leluhur dan agama Hindu.)

He then averred that the possibility that Bali would become an island of sin had to be guarded against. The young Hindu activists’ worries seem to be echoed by the Governor of Bali, I Dewa Made Beratha, as well.

Playboy gives the impression of being pornographic so it seems as if Bali is accepting pornography [if the Playboy offices are located there].
(Playboy itu kesannya pornografi. Jadi seolah-olah kami menerima pornografi.)

said the governor. He also worried that the reasons behind Bali’s rejection of the RUU APP would become muddied. Bali opposed the bill for cultural reasons, he said, not because the Balinese were pro-porn. But he admitted that legally there was nothing that could be done about the existence of Playboy in Bali.