No satire please, we're Indonesian

Harry Bhaskara, Jakarta

As World Cup fever hits new heights, a popular television show has been put off the air. The Republik BBM, or Benar Benar Mabok (Truly Drunken Republic), a popular political comedy broadcast every week for six months, quietly disappeared last week.

The high rating show, which poked fun at the political elite, including the President and the Vice President, had been under attack for some time. BBM was unprecedented in a society whose leadership was known to be averse to criticism.

During Soeharto's repressive New Order government, newspapers presented criticism in subtle ways, with readers gaining skills in reading between the lines. Direct criticism was unheard of, and imitating the way Soeharto spoke was the last thing a comedian would do.

Thus, the sight of comedians mimicking the gestures and ways of speech of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla on a television show every Monday night was a radical transformation.

Former New Order officials must have chuckled. It would have been easy for them to ban such a show. Using the popular excuse of "incompatibility" with our "Eastern culture", a show could be taken off the air. Or they could simply stop the show without explanation, as happened to Perspektif, a highly original and intelligent television talk show launched in 1994.

Perspektif, hosted by popular public commentator Wimar Witoelar, disappeared under dubious circumstances. The public could only guess the government was irked by an interview with the late Mochtar Lubis, in which he shot a string of stinging criticisms at the Information Ministry.

The reason behind the termination of Republik BBM is also not very clear but it has been openly discussed. The Indosiar private broadcaster said the cast and the crew of the show needed a break to watch the World Cup. It was an interesting explanation. Does a broadcaster cater more to their crews than their viewers? It also said it had finished its contract of 26 episodes on June 5.

"It is up to them (the show's creative team) if they want to find a new station to broadcast the show in the future," Indosiar spokesman Ghufron Sakaril told this paper earlier this month. It was a clear sign that the broadcaster was not interested in airing future episodes of the show.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who was earlier said to be wary of the show, denied he had ordered it off the air. On April 7, the cast of the show was invited to Kalla's office. A co-producer of the show, Effendi Gazali, said Indosiar had issued a list of "dos and don'ts" after the meeting.

Interestingly, a number of private TV owners also slammed the show in a meeting with Kalla in April. It was not clear if the criticism was motivated by a marketing war or was an effort to win Kalla's favor.

Public criticism has had something of a renaissance in the aftermath of Soeharto's fall in 1998, and is an essential element in a democracy. However, the short-lived show serves as a reminder criticizing the holders of power can be a little hard for some people to chew.

Nonetheless, the show helped demystify the presidential institution, which had turned into something approaching a monarch under Soeharto. The awkward response from Indosiar notwithstanding, it still deserves kudos. Such a show can only survive in a country with mature leaders who understand they are accountable to the people and their lives will always be under public scrutiny.

Our politicians have a steep hill to climb and the people must have patience. They have yet to learn to rightly report their wealth before serving the people, something they do now with some reluctance. For the time being, it is perhaps better to enjoy the World Cup and pretend everything is fine with the country.

The author is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post. He can be reached at harry@thejakartapost.com.