Humorist Jaya Suprana releases book on notorious errors

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): Jaya Suprana, a humorist with a bulk of titles and ideas, has recorded another debut.

The 48-year-old pianist, cartoonist, columnist and businessman released the first volume of his new book featuring 117 short stories of notorious man-made errors, blunders and mistakes, compiled from his own experiences as well as local and foreign sources.

The 136-page book titled Kaleidoskopi Kelirumologi, a title that is not easy to translate into English because the last word could not be found in any encyclopedia here and overseas.

But literally, the title means that the book is a kaleidoscope of "science of errors". The word keliru is derived from the Indonesian language, meaning errors.

The book consists of stories, each written on a single page, about errors found in various walks of life, including those on misunderstanding, misquoting and misusing languages, quotes, historical facts, inventions and personal data.

"This book is not about jokes but human tragedy," Jaya told reporters at the recent launch. "So, I'm not hoping readers will laugh."

However, it's no doubt that some of the stories can "mistakenly" lead readers to smile, at least.

The story of a signboard at a hotel lobby in Kyoto, Japan, is an example. Designed to remind guests to respect the local etiquette, the sign reads Sports jacket may be worn, but please no trousers.

In Brussels, a billboard at a travel agent reads: Hand your baggage to us. We will send it in all directions.

One of the few interesting local stories is about Mien Sugandhi, the state minister for women roles. During a tour for the Love-the-Mother movement at Tirtomoyo village in East Java, Mien expressed her unhappiness as she encountered a 40-year-old woman, who was at an advanced stage of pregnancy for her eighth child.

"My goodness, you already have seven children but are pregnant again," said the minister. "Where's your husband, I wanna circumcise him."

The author of the book takes the minister's joke seriously. Jaya said Mien's job has nothing to do with men's affairs and circumcision couldn't stop males from making their wives pregnant.

In Kaliedoskopi Kelirumologi, Jaya also wants to show some of the world's long-time mistakes which are still considered true.

On page 55, for instance, the book states that George Washington was actually the ninth, instead of first, American president. The first president, according to the author, was John Hayson from Maryland who was elected in 1781. Washington was elected eight years later.

According to the book, Alexander Graham Bell is the fake inventor of the telephone and Thomas Alfa Edison was not the real inventor of the electric light bulb.

It also explains that Vodka is originally from Poland, instead of Russia as it is widely believed.

Some other stories are quite amazing.

American president Harry Truman is said to have ordered the deadly atomic bombs be dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945 after he received a "challenging" telegram from the Japanese emperor incorrectly translated into English. In the message as a reply to the Allied's request for surrender, the word mokuatsu which means "under consideration" was mistakenly translated into "rejected".

The book says that the Teddy Bear, the little bear doll popular among kids worldwide, was based on the shape of the Koala that U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed Teddy, loved very much.

Jaya also says humans have mistakenly applied the incorrect names of months in the calendar for hundreds of years. For example, September, named as the ninth month of a year, is derived from Latin, which means seven. October should stand for the eighth month, instead of tenth.

But the author says that errors or mistakes can sometimes bring something useful which is called serendipity, a word derived from a story of three princes from the Serendip Island (now Sri Lanka), who often acted incorrectly but was later found useful.

One of the serendipity cases is the tale of an Egyptian slave, who mistakenly "invented" today's bread from the typical slim bread just because he fell asleep. Another example is the invention of butter by camels in the desert.

Whether or not Jaya's version is true, the materials in the book are mostly compiled from 117 printed sources, including the Bible, the Guiness Book of Records and The Jakarta Post.

Unfortunately, there's no single story about mistakes or errors by elite Indonesian politicians. Knowing that such stories are as abundant as the natural sources here, the author expresses his apology on a special page.

"It's a mistake when I wrote the political blunders in this book of mistaken stories," he said. Moreover, Jaya said he didn't want to see his life ruined.

He promised to publish more daring stories in the second volume to be released after the May general election.

Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid, who was invited as a critic for the book at the launching ceremony, commented: "It's true that the stories are from overseas but the contents also touch on domestic problems."

With an introduction written by outspoken scholar Arief Budiman, the book is published by PT Elex Media Komputindo of the Gramedia Group. It is now available at Gramedia bookstores for Rp 8,000 (US$3.50) each.

According to Jaya, who is easily recognized for being overweight, wearing suspenders and glasses, said he was inspired to write the book after experiencing two unpleasant mistakes.

The first happened when he was on a ritual trip with his wife to pray at Golgotha, the hill outside ancient Jerusalem where Jesus was believed to have been crucified.

After a complicated diplomatic procedure, Jaya and his wife, Yulia, arrived at the site. With the help of a guide, they went inside a cave and prayed. "We couldn't stop tears falling from our eyes because we had been dreaming for so long of being there," Jaya recalled.

Outside the cave, Jaya gave the guide US$10 as a tip. In reply, the guide said: "Thank you, Sir. Do you want to see another cave?"

Jaya was shocked and immediately asked his wife to leave the scene. "How can there be special caves for Catholics and Protestants?"

The second inspiration came after a long debate with Kompas editorial staff about serious mistakes in his article about mistakes that apparently occurred with even more fatal errors.

"I was asked to write an explanation to the letters column about mistakes in my article that were mistakenly corrected by the editorial staff," said Jaya.

Surprisingly, Jaya's letter was again mistakenly rewritten by staff responsible for the Reader's Letters column. "I then called Pak Jacob (the daily's chief editor) to explain the problem."

Jacob urged Jaya to write another letter and promised none of the paper's staff would edit it. Finally, the letter was published as what it was.

"It was fine even though I didn't believe that the readers still followed the new correction," Jaya said. But he added quickly: "What happened later was that the daily made a lot of mistakes for several months because correctors were afraid to do their job -- correcting mistakes."

"It seems that my life is an everlasting journey of errors and I believe my death later will be caused by an error," he said.

Kaleidoskopi Kelirumologi volume I, if not mistaken, is Jaya's second book. The first one published last year was Humoria, a collection of his cartoons.

Jaya was born in Bali on Jan. 27, 1949, with a Chinese name Poa Kok Tjiang.

Holding a PhD degree in philosophy and social sciences from the Pacific Western University in the United States, Jaya is now the chief commissioner of his family-run medicinal herbs producing firm, PT Jamu Cap Jago, in the Central Java capital of Semarang.