This did not stop religious groups and the anti-smoking lobby from mobilising to try to stop a planned concert in Jakarta by Kelly Clarkson, an American singer.
Not even the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei--a stridently anti-American but unremarkable cleric plucked from the religious ranks 14 years ago to fill the shoes of his giant predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini--is fully in control.