Last July, veteran actor Pong Harjatmo finally had enough of the country’s public officials and lost it — publicly. Having seen a myriad unresolved cases of corruption, he decided to teach our legislators a lesson.
The 68-year-old, who has starred in more than 50 movies since 1970, climbed onto the rooftop of the House of Representatives building in Senayan, South Jakarta, and spray-painted the words “honest,” “fair” and “firm,” before he was detained by security officers.
It is clear that people have had enough of the government’s shady dealings and are lashing out through increasingly creative means. In fact, Pong’s stunt may have been a trigger that encouraged others to speak out against corrupt public officials, many using novel ways to attract attention to their cause.
Two weeks ago, an ex-convict named Bona Paputungan found YouTube fame with his satirical song “Andai Aku Jadi Gayus Tambunan” (“If I Were Gayus Tambunan”). As of this week, the song has received more than 300,000 hits on the video-sharing site, not to mention the numerous uploads by his ever-increasing number of admirers.
With lyrics that posses both humor and criticism, “Andai Aku Jadi Gayus Tambunan” is the type of song destined to become the ringtone for the growing number of Indonesians disaffected by the corruption in the country’s legal system.
“If I were Gayus Tambunan/I’d be able to go to Bali/All my wants would be fulfilled/It’s funny in this country/that the law can be bought,” Bona sings atop a simple folk melody.
The accompanying music video possesses an equal self-awareness. Mixing shots of Bona singing and strumming his guitar in a darkened room with mock footage of Gayus, complete with his silly little wig and glasses, bribing officials with a knowing grin, the video is amateurishly charming.
Bona wrote the song last year while serving prison time for domestic violence in Gorontalo, a province on Sulawesi Island — a fact that is highlighted in the song with the lines “March 11/I was sent to prison.”
Like many Indonesians, Bona feels he has been unfairly treated by those in power. “We, who are weak, are resigned to fate,” he sings.
Bona’s intention is apparent. He wants to voice his criticism of the judicial system, a system that allows convicts with enough money to avoid punishment by bribing law-enforcement officials. Another line in the song goes, “We, who are meek/cannot do anything/We can’t do everything/Like those corruptors.”
The protagonist of the song is Gayus Tambunan, the notorious former tax official who came to the public’s attention for having billions of rupiah in his bank accounts and later confessing that he bribed prison guards to let him out of his cell 68 times.
In November last year, Gayus and his family enjoyed a trip to Bali to watch an international tennis tournament. He also traveled to Macau, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore while he was supposed to be locked up awaiting trial for corruption.
“The funny thing about this country, justice can be bought. Those who cannot afford it can only surrender to the situation,” Bona said in an interview with state news agency Antara.
Andi Ardillah Pratiwi, a psychologist at the University of Indonesia, said the current situation made it increasingly likely that the public would lash out against the government in creative ways.
“People are tired of the government’s inability to bring about justice” she said. “The guilty ones are left unpunished.”
But she was quick to add that with more and more people plugged in to the Internet, many people were capitalizing on the situation to gain instant fame. “People with an opportunistic character will use this to attract public attention to establish their own intended fame,” she said.
And instant fame is indeed what many people are getting. Perhaps trying to capitalize on Bona’s success, a young woman named Stefany Nahan uploaded a video last week to YouTube in which she sings a song called “Nurdin Turun Dwonk” (“Nurdin, Please Step Down”). Written by her brother, JJ Nahan, who can also be heard playing guitar in the video, the song targets the controversial chairman of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), Nurdin Halid.
“He always manages to keep his position although most people fully understand his wrongdoings and demand that he resign,” JJ Nahan told football online magazine Goal.com.
Stefany and JJ are not the only ones who have used song as a weapon to try and force Nurdin to quite the football association.
Last week, a trio from Bandung calling themselves Sayyidin uploaded a song on YouTube. The song, “Nurdin Ali,” satirically mocks Nurdin Halid and all of his perceived failings as the country’s football boss.
The lyrics include the lines, “Stop everything, you are not supposed to be there. Stop it right now.”
Band member Fadil said it took the group only a day to create the song, adding that the idea first came from their manager.
“We made the song when everyone was talking about our national team,” Fadil told Detik.com.
With more than 25,000 hits so far on YouTube, it’s likely that other bands will be inspired by Sayyidin’s success.
Anti-Gayus Facebook groups are also springing up left, right and center, including the very literal “Hang Gayus Tambunan” page.
More than 6,000 people have said they “like” the page, which is filled with plenty of less-than-friendly messages for the disgraced former taxman.
The page boasts comment-baiting updates such as one that translates as, “Will the punishment of hanging be enough to satisfy your disappointment in Gayus and company?”
The page also explores other topics relating to governmental corruption. One update asks, “What other state departments, other than customs and taxes, do you think have the same number of rats?”
Another Facebook page with more than 3,000 “friends” is called simply “Gayus Tambunan.” It has status updates such as “Feeling like traveling to Nusa Dua beach in Bali” and “Crop circles have distracted officials from the issues at hand.”
The online community has also posted a lot of Photoshopped Gayus-inspired art. One such photo has him pasted onto the body of a police officer, another onto a Transformers robot (creating a “GayusFormers”), while others have superimposed the pseudo-celebrity onto rupiah notes. While all this satirical creativity can be a lot of fun, whether it has a positive effect remains to be seen.
(all this thanks to the Jak Globe)
vr 28 jan 2011 - 19:36