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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">From: ariel_heryanto
<ariel_heryanto@yahoo.com><br>
Subject: [south-east-asia] A hybrid popular culture<br>
Sender: south-east-asia@yahoogroups.com.au<br>
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http://insideindonesia.org/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1189&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=47</a>
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<br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=4><b>A hybrid popular
culture</b></font>
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<h4><font face="verdana" size=2><b>Indonesian pop music and television
still have a significant influence in East Timor</b></font></h4><br><br>
<br>
<h3><font face="verdana" size=2><b>Annie Sloman</b></font></h3><br><br>
<img src="http://insideindonesia.org/images/stories/edition_96/sloman1_en.jpg" width=580 height=435 alt="sloman1_en.jpg">
<br><br>
<h5><font face="verdana" size=2><b> Galaxy performing at a
beachside hut in Dili</b></font></h5><br><br>
<br>
<h5><font face="verdana" size=2><b> Annie
Sloman</i></b></font></h5><br><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>As I walk home from the market one afternoon
in the southern Timoreseborder town of Suai, my ears pick up the sound of
the famous dangdutsong `Pacaran lagi' (Dating again). A group of Timorese
children areputting on an impromptu concert in a tree overhanging an old
burnt-outbuilding from Indonesian times. The tree sways dangerously as 20
pairsof hips gyrate, defying gravity. The volume increases as they
realisethat a foreigner is watching. The children are singing their
heartsout, full blast, in Indonesian. This surprises me, given that
thesechildren must all be under the age of eight, which means they have
beenborn in independent, Tetum- and Portuguese-speaking East Timor. None
ofthem could keep up a conversation in Indonesian, yet each word of
thesong comes out loud and clear.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>On the other side of the country in Los
Palos, I enter a home onenight to see an extended family glued to the TV.
They are watching anepisode of Indonesian soap opera featuring Jakarta
slang, characters inMuslim garb, Ramadan jokes and young funky Indonesian
actors. Theimages on the screen seem so distant from life in this poor
ruralvillage at the edge of East Timor, but for the people watching there
isa sense of connection.<br>
</font><br>
<h3><font face="verdana" size=2><b>The sights and sounds of Indonesian
pop</b></font></h3><br><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>At times, the prevalence of popular
Indonesian music and images inEast Timor makes it easy to think that you
are in Indonesia. Indonesianmusic blares out of loud-speakers, satellite
dishes streamingIndonesian TV are spread across the country, and posters
with picturesof Indonesian pop stars line walls and microlet
minibuses.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>The odd Indonesian rock concert in Dili,
often sponsored by leadingIndonesian cigarette brands, is one of the
highlights of the year.These concerts, such as Peter Pan in 2005 or Slank
in 2008, can bringthe city to a standstill. The streets are lined from
the airport to thestadium with people waiting to get a glimpse of the
rock stars. Ittakes hours of dangerous pushing to get a place inside the
jam-packedDili stadium to see the band or, some would argue, just to see
what allthe commotion is about. These concerts attract not only youth,
buteverybody from young children to old women; even Xanana Gusmão,
thecurrent Prime Minister, has attended.<br>
</font>
<dl><br>
<dd><h4><font face="verdana" size=2><b>The odd Indonesian rock concert in
Dili is one of the highlights of the year</b></font></h4><br><br>
</dl><font face="verdana" size=2>The easy access to popular culture
affects the way young people inEast Timor speak Indonesian. Despite the
use of formal Indonesian inthe high school and university curricula,
young people tend to speakthe cool slang of Jakarta that they have learnt
from Indo-pop. Wordslike `gue' and `lu', slang for `I' and `you', and
phrases like `capekdeh' (`I'm over it'), and `kasihan da lu' (a sarcastic
`you poor thing'with matching hand gestures) have entered daily Tetum
streetvernacular.<br>
</font><br>
<h3><font face="verdana" size=2><b>Escapism</b></font></h3><br><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>Why is Indonesian pop culture so popular with
people, young and old,who fought hard for independence from Indonesia?
Aziby and Xisto,emerging artists from the Arte Moris Free Art School in
Dili, explainedto me that Indonesian popular culture is something
everybody can relateto, `even old women with no teeth'. They see
Indonesian pop as tellingstories that are very close to their own lives.
Small village orneighbourhood life, the influence of conservative
religion onrelationships, issues of gender and cultural hierarchy,
arrangedmarriages and issues of poverty are key themes of the shows and
thepop-songs. Indonesian pop culture also gives people room to see and
todream about the completely `other' world of big cities and the
upperclass elite of Jakarta. Timorese can understand the words of
Indonesianmusic and television, which is less often the case with
similarPortuguese pop. For these reasons Indonesian popular culture
provides aform of entertainment and escapism.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>It is not surprising that pop culture
provides an escape from thehardship of daily subsistence and high
unemployment in East Timor.There is little access to reading material,
particularly in Tetum, andilliteracy is widespread. Television and most
local radio stations airTimorese or Portuguese based content, but they
have only limitedbroadcasting hours and a limited range of low-quality
local radio andtelevision productions. All of this means that there is
little to keeppeople's attention. It makes sense that, with the
increasingaccessibility and affordability of `parabola' satellite TV and
the saleof cheap Indonesian VCDs and cassettes, Indonesian pop culture
hasremained popular over the last ten years. There is also a common
fearthat Indonesian language skills will be lost, and many parents
areactively encouraging their young children to watch Indonesian TV
andlearn Indonesian songs, in the hope that by doing so they will
learnIndonesian. Maintaining Indonesian language skills is seen as
importantfor future education and work opportunities in Indonesia.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>Aziby and Xisto do not see their appreciation
of Indonesiantelevision or music as making them any less Timorese. For
them, it isno different from watching or listening to media from
elsewhere in theworld. They choose to watch Timorese programs when they
are on, butamong the international shows on offer, the Indonesian
programs havethe advantage because they do not need to be subtitled. Like
otherTimorese, they prefer Indonesian TV to the Portuguese shows that
arebroadcast on the national television station, TVTL. This may be
theresult of a lack of comprehension, differences in culture or
theambiguous position of the Portuguese language in East Timor.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>Aziby and Xisto also touch on the sense of
nostalgia for the formerfriendships between the colonisers and the
colonised that can be foundin most post-colonial societies. They recall
that Indonesians wereoften happy to enter the kitchens of Timorese people
and eat with them,while Portuguese were never interested in doing so. For
some Timorese,Indonesian television and music can evoke bad memories. For
others, itmay remind them of good times and of their cultural and
physicalcloseness to their neighbour. It may also give them a sense of
beingpart of a region, something that they do not get from western
popculture.<br>
</font><br>
<h3><font face="verdana" size=2><b>Timorese pop
culture</b></font></h3><br><br>
<img src="http://insideindonesia.org/images/stories/edition_96/sloman2.jpg" width=340 height=453 alt="sloman2.jpg">
<br><br>
<h5><font face="verdana" size=2><b> People climb high to
watch Peter Pan perform at a concert in Dili</b></font></h5><br><br>
<br>
<h5><font face="verdana" size=2><b> Thushara
Dibley</i></b></font></h5><br><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>The presence and popularity of Indonesian
music and television inEast Timor has not weakened the development or the
popularity ofTimorese popular culture. Local bands such as Galaxy,
Cedalia, Gembel,Cinco De Oriente and Rai Nain regularly attract big
crowds and enjoy ahigh profile on local radio. Television shows such as
Istoria ba Futuru(History for the Future) and Estrella – East Timor's
version of the`Idol' phenomenon - are popular viewing. East Timor's first
ever soapopera, Roza, caused a storm the first time it was screened in
2005. Theshow was put together using funding from the United Nations
PopulationFund (UNFPA). The funding was enough for one 8 episode season.
Theactors were from the well known Bibi-Bulak performance troupe.
Rozaexplored issues of domestic violence and gender, and, though it
wasshort lived and did not match the standards of Indonesian cinetron,
itbecame a `must watch'. For the first time Timorese stories in Tetum,
attimes cutting edge and controversial, were being shown on TV.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>Unfortunately since 2005, similar Timorese TV
shows have been fewand far between. Support and standards for local
artists are limited.The ability of artists to create an album or TV
production, let aloneone that matches the standards of the Indonesian
pop-industryjuggernaut, is limited by a lack of skills and infrastructure
tosupport a popular entertainment industry in East Timor. The lack
ofproduction and distribution outlets mean that it is difficult
forartists to create or release work publicly. TVTL is still
onlybroadcasting a few hours of Timorese content a day, with the
majoritybeing focused on government or public education. On top of this,
whenTVTL has been approached by local production houses offering to
creatework free of charge, TVTL has clearly stated that they will only
screensomething if the production house can pay for screening or
findindependent funding to cover screening costs, and that such
productionsmust fit into public education agendas. This means that
productionhouses and artists are limited to creating productions that
suitdevelopment donors and government.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>The limited legal framework for artists is
another barrier to thedevelopment of the Timorese pop industry. East
Timor does not havecopyright laws or the means to protect artists'
rights. Members of theTimorese band Galaxy independently recorded their
new album, Perecua,in Bandung, using money they had saved from years of
performing. Theyare, however, concerned about releasing their album in
East Timor, outof fear that they will lose all rights to their work due
to masscopying, the common practice of people re-recording other
people'ssongs, and the lack of protection for artistic licences.
Furthermorethey will struggle to sell their album at a price that will
coverproduction costs because of the prevalence of cheap Indonesian
piratedCDs for sale in East Timor.<br>
</font>
<dl><br>
<dd><h4><font face="verdana" size=2><b>Pop culture provides an escape
from the hardship of daily subsistence and high unemployment in East
Timor</b></font></h4><br>
<br>
</dl><font face="verdana" size=2>The continued presence of Indonesian
popular culture in East Timorafter independence demonstrates a reality
that is often ignored byTimorese politicians. There are strong cultural
links with Indonesiathat continue to grow. There are increasing
Indonesia/East Timorcollaborations and exchanges through art. One such
collaboration was`Recovering Lives Across Borders', a print-making
work-shop andexhibition in Dili in September 2008 that brought together
people fromart collectives in Yogyakarta, East Timor and Australia.
Furthermorenumerous Timorese writers have attended the Ubud Readers and
Writersfestival over the years and many Timorese students are
currentlystudying art and culture in Indonesia. There are also signs that
thelocal popular culture is beginning to spread its wings. Recently
thelocal band Galaxy were invited to tour to Kupang in West Timor and
toFlores in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, which islinked
culturally as well as geographically with East Timor. Thecontinuing
growth of home-grown Timorese popular culture couldeventually result in
the flow of cultural products into Indonesia,particularly to regions with
long cultural ties to the island of Timor.But for this to happen the
industry will need more support.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="verdana" size=2>Annie Sloman (anniesloman@hotmail.com)</b>
has been living andworking on and off in East Timor since 2004. She is
currently based inYogyakarta completing a Masters of International and
CommunityDevelopment and working alongside various art, activism
andenvironmental communities and NGOs in Central Java.<br>
</i><div align="center">Inside Indonesia 96: Apr-Jun 2009<br><br>
</div>
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