Ban on dubbing
Ban on dubbing
Although the measure could have been expected, considering
objections that have been raised by the public in past months,
Minister of Information Hartono's order banning the airing of
foreign films dubbed into the Indonesian language, Bahasa
Indonesia, nevertheless seems to have come as a surprise to many.
This is certainly true at least for those who are most directly
affected by the measure: the private television station operators
and dubbers.
There can be little doubt, however, that similar feelings of
surprise and disappointment exist among thousands, and possibly
millions, of faithful television viewers as well. It is well-
known that telenovellas -- the melodramatic Latin American soap
operas that fill mostly the midmorning programs of our television
networks -- are among the best loved of many Indonesians,
housewives in particular.
As for television networks, their main complaint is that the
information minister's order for them to stop airing the dubbed
films as of October has come too sudden, thus giving them little
time to make proper adjustments.
TPI private television station operations director Ishadi has
been quoted by newspapers as saying that as many as 400 foreign
film titles have already been dubbed from their respective
foreign languages -- mainly Spanish, Indian and Chinese -- into
Indonesian, and are waiting to be aired. Dubbers, too, have
expressed objections, at least over the timing of the ban, with
film dubbing having grown into a considerable business over the
past few years.
Hartono's argument for declaring the ban is that, given the
impact which television has on most ordinary people, dubbed
foreign films could negatively influence our national culture and
values. The reasoning, apparently, is not just that dubbing makes
films easier to follow for millions of viewers. More importantly,
dubbing films into Indonesian makes foreign cultural settings and
values more readily accessible to Indonesian viewers.
By making it more accessible, it also makes it easier for
Indonesians to identify with the characters portrayed in the
films and therefore it is much easier to adopt those foreign
values. Hence, perhaps, the ruling that dubbing into the English
language will be allowed, or required.
To be fair, it is difficult for us to dispute Hartono's
reasoning. State-run television network TVRI alone, with more
than 350 stations, is estimated to reach some 165 million people
throughout the archipelago. In addition, there are five private
television networks, and although their reach is relatively
limited compared to TVRI, their programs are highly popular.
Among the people of Sentani in faraway Irian Jaya, for example,
the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are among the most
popular programs. In big cities like Jakarta, one only has to
look around to realize that the impact television has is indeed
huge.
Meanwhile, on the side of those who are all for dubbing, the
main argument is that in this era of globalization, an
interchange of cultures and values is unavoidable. Moreover, the
argument goes, even our own television serials -- the so-called
sinetrons, which are written and produced by our own Indonesian
dream merchants -- are thick with foreign tastes and values. So,
what harm can there be in substituting Indonesian faces with
foreign ones?
The unfortunate fact in all of this is that we have so far
never really been able to concur on what actually comprises our
national culture. The formulation contained in the 1945
Constitution that it represents "the peaks of our regional
cultures" is clearly unsatisfactory. Our constitution, after all,
was drafted by statesmen and politicians -- not by artists and
cultural analysts.
One thing this whole dubbing episode can teach us is that the
time has come that we should start pondering this question in
earnest: What actually constitutes our national culture? A clear-
cut conception on this subject is necessary if we are to find a
proper balance in the global interaction of cultures that is now
taking place with increased intensity.