ANDI Syamsudin Arsyad made an oath in a room of a Japanese restaurant at the Rattan Inn Hotel, Banjarmasin, at the end of December 2009. “I will cut off and eat my genitals,” said this man better known as Haji Isam, in a shrill voice.

All of those present immediately fell silent. Mohammad Solikin, Director of PT Sari Borneo Yufanda, a company in a dispute with Isam, admitted that he was surprised by that statement. “The mood was very tens