60 years ago, RI revolution was backed by puppets
60 years ago, RI revolution was backed by puppets
Sebastien Blanc, Agence France-Presse/Jakarta
There was no CNN, no Internet and a high level of illiteracy
when revolutionary ferment swept through Indonesia 60 years ago.
The occupying Japanese had surrendered but the Dutch
colonialists refused to loosen their grip when on Aug. 17, 1945,
the nationalists Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the
country's independence.
Historic events were unfolding but with no modern media, how
were authorities to tell the population? They turned to
traditional puppets from Indonesia's main island of Java.
Called wayang kulit, this shadow theatre with Hindu origins
uses perforated leather figures, manipulated in front of an
illuminated cotton screen stretched across a bamboo frame.
Seated cross-legged, the puppeteer, or dalang, animates his
puppets by moving their arms using stems made of horn. He adopts
the various voices of the characters he plays during an all-night
performance that ends at dawn.
Accompanied by a gamelan orchestra of gongs, xylophones and
other percussive instruments, the puppets sway and dance. Seated
on the ground, the audience watches the puppets' shadows.
Some enthusiasts sneak behind the screen to admire the talents
of the puppeteer.
"A lot of people were illiterate. Wayang was an important way
to bring the news. It was a sort of newspaper," Stanley Bremer,
director of the Wereldmuseum of Rotterdam, tells AFP.
On the 60th anniversary of Indonesian independence last
Wednesday, this "museum of the cultures of the world" gave
Jakarta, on an indefinite loan, a lavish collection of the
revolutionary puppets it purchased in 1965.
Twenty years earlier as patriotic fervour bubbled to the
surface in the vast archipelago, this centuries-old entertainment
was diverted to revolutionary service in an effort to unify the
villagers and spur on the nationalist sentiment personified by
the charismatic Sukarno.
"It is what we called 'wayang suluh': to educate the
population in an informal way about the meaning of the struggle
for independence," explains Aurora Tambunan, executive director
of the Jakarta government cultural office.
The plays depicted patriotic leaders, independence fighters,
civil servants, governors, Dutch colonialists, Japanese soldiers
and common people. Photographs snipped from newspapers served as
models.
Hatta, who become Sukarno's vice-president, was a prominent
figure among the puppets. Charismatic Sukarno was shown standing
behind a lectern, in reference to a patriotic speech he made in
Bandung city in the 1920s.
This kind of propaganda had been used in the past. Muslim
preachers employed the wayang to spread Islam in the 15th
century, and the sultans of Java employed the puppets to relate
the history of their dynasties.
The gesture by the Wereldmuseum attests to the warm relations
now shared between Indonesia and its former colonial master.
The Netherlands on Monday for the first time accepted the date
of Indonesia's independence as 1945, ending a dispute that had
irritated relations.
Until then, the Dutch had insisted on recognising the date as
Dec. 27, 1949, when they transferred sovereignty after losing a
four-year war.
The spectacle of the revolution puppets "is rather confronting
because it is telling a story not always very nice", says Bremer.
The 160 puppets were insured for 1,500 euros (US$1,842) for
their trip from Rotterdam to Jakarta. But their real value is
priceless.
Raymond Leeuwenburg, co-ordinator of the conservation
department of the Wereldmuseum, praises the tiny details painted
on the figures made of water-buffalo leather.
"They are very accurate. You can recognize people from Papua!"
he exclaims, referring to residents of the country's easternmost
province, who have a Melanesian appearance.
The puppets will soon be on display at Jakarta's wayang
museum, shown in climate-controlled cases built by the
Wereldmuseum to protect the fragile revolutionary heroes from the
humidity, heat and pollution plaguing the capital of today's --
very independent -- Indonesia.