Jaya Suprana: Obsession with humor

Jaya Suprana: Obsession with humor

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): What can Indonesian children do that Albert
Einstein couldn't do?

"Speak Indonesian," answers Jaya Suprana.

This joke perplexed, and then made an audience at a seminar
laugh. Jaya had broken down common sense, surprising the people
around him with an inane alternative.

Ever since the small, fat man from Central Java's capital of
Semarang became known about a decade ago, his jokes have appeared
in local print media. His quotations often become the sole
amusing story of the day amidst the abundance of boring
ceremonial reports and official quotations.

The press dubbed him a humorist although he prefers being
called "humorologist" -- a term he coined himself -- contending
that humor is a discipline.

Jaya's skill is not limited to making jokes. He is also well
known for his odd contests. The contests include a statue-like
contest, that is to find who can remain like a statue the
longest; a no blinking contest; the longest hair and biggest
eyebrow contest; crying, laughing, whistling and imitating animal
sounds contests and many others. They all enjoyed much publicity
from the excitable Indonesian press. Some winners of the odd
contests have reportedly been admitted to the hallowed pages of
the Guinnes Book of World Records.

In 1990, he set up the Indonesian Record Museum to register
all the odd things and events across the country, including his
weird contests and their winners.

Indonesians love his jokes and weird ideas and therefore have
not questioned if they are his own creations or originate from
his massive collection of books.

"Nothing is purely original in the world. Every new innovation
is based on some previous creation," he insisted.

Books

Born in Denpasar in 1949, Jaya has been a bookworm since
childhood. At primary school, he loved to read a large book,
which he later found out was an encyclopedia.

"I now have 40 kinds of encyclopedias," says Jaya, who sold
books for two years during the 1960s in his hometown of Semarang.

The encyclopedias are a small part of his rich collection of
books. He asserts that he has the largest private library in the
country, which is just slightly smaller than the National
Archives. The thousands of books fill his large house and he once
proposed building a separate house just to store them.

He moved to Germany after completing high school to polish his
music, art and economic talents. His much revered father, who
then managed the jamu (herbal medicine) family business called
Jamu Jago, intentionally limited Jaya's budget to force him to
work while overseas.

Jaya employed his many talents to earn money. He worked as a
welder for a year, then installed floor tiles, tended bar and
drew cartoons for a Munster newspaper for five years.

He proved to be a very talented cartoonist and displayed his
work in several countries. When he returned to Java, he taught
cartoon drawing in his spare time.

His also developed a music career. After completing his
studies, he became a principal of a music school and gave
lectures at several German universities.

"I was one of the first Indonesians to be accepted as
government official in Germany," he assured.

He returned to Indonesia in the 1970s and joined the family
business, Jamu Jago. He became the firm's president director and
began serving as the president of the firm's board of
commissioners in 1992. The 77 year-old family firm now has 1,500
employees.

He has slowly revealed his true identity as an eclectic.
Amazed Indonesians fancy the man knows everything. He is now one
of the most invited speakers to seminars and workshops across the
country.

Last year alone he spoke at 147 seminars on various topics,
including chairs.

"Sometimes I speak at three seminars a day and bring along the
wrong papers," he said.

Obsession

Jaya is unusual. While Indonesians strive to specialize he
seeks out knowledge everywhere, just like scholars in the past.

Besides taking care of business, he speaks at seminars, jokes
around, runs odd contests, gets involved with heaps of charity
work, writes and also plays music with his wife Julia.

The press bestowed the title budayawan (culture advocate) on
him. He differs from other people with the same title as they
mostly serve as social critics as well; and are often in conflict
with the government. Jaya stays away from politics. He knows many
jokes about ministers but refuses to tell them. He sharply
criticizes Indonesian society in his articles, but none of them
pin blame the government.

"Our family policy is not to get involved in politics while
doing business. I am apolitical," Jaya explained.

Jaya's main obsession is humor. Time and again he speaks about
the need for a sense of humor, which "is a sort of leukocyte to
human psyche." It keeps humans from chagrin and mental breakdown
when they lose, fail and are powerless, he says. It is not
synonymous with laughter. His view on humor is truly
philosophical, and is the yield of his years of reflection and
readings of many philosophical books on homo ludens.

Unfamiliar with philosophy, not many of his audience are
curious about what lies behind his obsession with humor.

"In our life and in such a socio-political situation as today,
where many things happen in contrast to our wishes, what we need
is a sense of humor. Otherwise, we might kill ourselves," Jaya
asserted.

Jaya isn't as apolitical as he claims to be. He is just
different from other budayawan in the way he heals Indonesians'
broken hearts.