'Baywatch', 'Prime Bodies' dropped during Ramadhan

'Baywatch', 'Prime Bodies' dropped during Ramadhan

JAKARTA (JP): The programs Baywatch, Prime Bodies and Another World are among those being dropped by local commercial television stations as the nation's predominantly Moslem population begins a month of fasting today.

In their place, the networks are airing programs with religious themes during the month of Ramadhan.

The popular Latin soap operas known as telenovela like Kassandra are being retained as are programs with violent scenes like imported kung fu films.

ANteve is dropping its morning aerobic program Prime Bodies and the Indonesian version Primaraga chiefly because they feature exercisers in skimpy outfits.

Instead, they will be showing a film series with marked religious values called Islam Brings Peace to the World.

The station has also dropped the MusikAN music show and replaced it with Mutiara Ramadhan (The Pearls of Ramadhan), a talk show hosted by famous poet Taufik Ismail.

Fans of the soap opera Another World and the series Baywatch on RCTI will have to part temporarily with the films' beautiful, scantily-clad performers and intriguing, meandering plots. The shows will be back on air after Ramadhan.

On the other hand, the millions of fans of the telenovela films will apparently still be able to follow the heartrending story of Kassandra as it is not included in the SCTV station's purge list compiled in honor of Ramadhan.

TPI which already had the most religious programs on air before Ramadhan, is extending its broadcasting hours by one-and-a-half hours each day to fit in even more religious programs designed chiefly to help Moslems pass the long fasting day.

Henny Elfandari, speaking for TPI, said the station has prepared various items, including a Koranic reading program to air as early as 3:30 a.m. when Moslems are eating their sahur (predawn meal).

The changes and additions to programs are part of a campaign by the private television stations, which at one time or another have been criticized for airing explicit or violent shows, to honor the holiest month in Islam.

The purging of possibly offensive broadcast material is their response to the suggestion by the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) that all radio and television stations, both private and state- owned, should adjust their programing out of respect for the fasting Moslems.

MUI Chairman Hasan Basri said last week that television stations should fill the month with religious and educational programs, and reduce shows which contain scenes and information which adversely affects the viewers' "iman, ahlak dan kepribadian (faith, conduct and character).

Several representatives from the television stations told The Jakarta Post yesterday that they are taking extra precautions in selecting materials to be broadcast so they will not be offensive to the fasting Moslems.

"We will tighten censorship over the films because we don't want to air anything which may disturb the fasting Moslems," Budi Darmawan of SCTV said. "Even for Kassandra and other telenovela, which are usually watched by housewives in the morning, we will be more careful."

"We'll air programs which will lift the Moslems' spirit, and add to their faith," he promised. Included among those programs is Sahibul dan Hikayat, a locally made series starring Dedy Mizwar, which tells religious stories.

Budi said the same precautions will be taken with films containing violence and with cooking programs in which ingredients could run counter to Islamic teachings.

"We'll be very careful ... we have even canceled Cara Memasak Sehat (Healthy Cooking) show," he said.

Henny of TPI said that, compared to other stations, her station has always paid more attention to religious programs. For this Ramadhan, it plans to air even more Islamic programs, both foreign and locally made.

"We'll air more documentary films and talk shows, including a new program called Kantin Batin which will feature successful Moslem families," she said.

This yearly attempt to purge the worst from programing has been observed increasingly more carefully by private television stations for the past several years, especially after a 1991 uproar over one SCTV show.

At that time, the East Java chapter of MUI protested to the station because it aired a cooking program, Wok With Yan, in which the chef Stephen Yan showed his audience how to cook pork, during Ramadhan. (swe)