For 'Si Kuncung' life may start after 40

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The oldest children's magazine in Indonesia, Si Kuncung, celebrates its 41st anniversary this month. Once the darling of every child in Indonesia, you will no longer find it in the bookstore even though it still clings on to existence.

For many years, Si Kuncung was the only children's magazine and once reached a circulation of 250,000 copies. However, in the early 1970s, new magazines, many of them versions of publications from abroad, appeared featuring famous cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Popeye.

Si Kuncung's popularity soon faded. Circulation has plummeted to 25,000 copies today, and this number is only due to the fact the Ministry of Education and Culture pays for subscriptions which they send to all the schools in Indonesia.

The magazine was founded at a time when obtaining reading materials was quite a problem in Indonesia for adults, but especially for children. During the colonial period people had relied on Dutch books for children who attended Dutch schools. There were some translated books for those who only read Malay.

After independence in 1945, the Dutch language was still taught in schools for a few years before the change to Indonesian. In 1956, when the magazine was established, Indonesian was still in its infancy and books were still largely unavailable as few adults had mastered the language well enough to write for children. There were some folktales and translated books from foreign countries, such as Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom's Cabin, and a few others in Dutch.

Soedjati S.A. decided to create the magazine to supplement the knowledge of his younger son and keep his interest in the world around him. This boy flunked fourth grade in school because he was bored in the class. He knew everything the teacher taught because he had studied his brother's schoolbooks from the previous year.

Soedjati's aim was to educate children, providing them with knowledge of Indonesian culture as well as the outside world. He was fortunate as he could count on the help of many experts, including Emil Salim, the former minister of environment. Salim has contributed many articles to the magazine and realizes its importance as he was an avid reader as a child.

Si Kuncung also had the help of an ornithologist who wrote about birds; the most successful story was entitled Why the Cock Crows at Dawn. The story seems to appeal to children in big cities who seldom see roosters, let alone hear them crowing.

Adrian Lapian has sent in a few stories about pirates as he once wrote his dissertation on the subject. A faithful contributor is Singgih Wibisono, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia and an expert on wayang shadow puppets.

For today's children, who seem to enjoy hamburgers and donuts more than traditional Indonesian food, Si Kuncung's appearance is probably not as appealing as the many glossy magazines now available. Soedjati defends his magazine by saying it has a national identity not found in other children's publications.

This is true as Si Kuncung has a very important role to play. But it needs to find a solution to solve its own identity crisis. A complete overhaul, perhaps including improvement of illustrations and paper quality, may be needed to meet the demands of time. Who knows, maybe a helping hand from the business world will come through the placement of advertisements in Si Kuncung's pages.