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.