People made April fools by the authorities

People made April fools by the authorities

JAKARTA (JP): Perhaps only a few people here remember that the
annual game known as April fool was once enjoyed by people
because it was very entertaining. That is why nobody connected
the government's announcement that it had postponed the fuel
price hike with April Fools' Day, although newspapers carried the
story on April 1.

The fun of the game is now history in Indonesia. It lost its
popularity a long time ago because newspapers, who led the game
in the 1950s, failed to come up with new ideas to fool their
readers. Anyway the game came from the West.

However, this game is still relevant today, since the business
of fooling people continues, only now it has been taken over by
other people and groups, including the authorities.

April Fools' Day was first introduced here in 1952, a year
after the seat of the central government was moved from
Yogyakarta to Jakarta, a move which helped open Indonesia to the
world and contributed to the healthy growth of the national
press. As in the West, our press enjoyed complete freedom.

The game in Indonesia cannot be separated from the great
American comedian Danny Kaye. To date, Kaye is the best comedian
Hollywood has produced. He starred in 16 top-selling comedies in
the 1950s before he retired from acting and was appointed a
roving ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund.

Kaye left behind his incomparable ability to tease people's
emotions. His name became a household word here after one of his
films was shown at Menteng cinema in Central Jakarta in 1952.
(The building has since been turned into a shopping center).

On April 1, months after this film was screened, Abadi daily
reported that Kaye would come to Jakarta to entertain his fans.
The daily reported the appearance would take place in Gambir (now
Monas) Square at 10 p.m. the following day.

The next day hundreds of people left their offices to gather
in the square. Reporters were busy with their cameras, ready to
cover the show, which helped further convince the public the show
would be a spectacular.

It turned out, however, that the story was an April mob (Dutch
for April fool). The public did not turn violent at the news for
they understood they were in the process of learning Western
traditions, which the Dutch did not teach them.

Over the next few years, except for a number of smaller
newspapers, no daily tried to run an April Fools' Day story. They
seemed to believe the readers were too smart to fall for an April
fool a second time. However, the pause only lasted until 1956,
when Pedoman, the most popular daily at the time, played a
successful April fool which caught even more people than Abadi's
joke.

On the front page of its April 1 edition, the daily printed a
copy of the invitation its chief editor Rosihan Anwar had
received for the wedding reception of Prince Rainier of Monaco
and Grace Kelly, America's most distinguished and beautiful
actress.

The wedding reception was to take place on April 18, and
according to the story the chief editor would be unable to attend
and would be represented by one of his two deputies. The story
asked readers to help select which of the deputies would attend
the wedding reception in Rosihan's place.

Because the daily was known for its high quality, hundreds of
readers responded to the call. They expressed their pride at the
honor Pedoman had received and explained why they selected one of
the two deputy editors to fly to Monaco.

The daily announced the results of the vote two weeks later,
concluding: "Anyway, neither of the two will go because it was
only an April fool."

That was perhaps the last April fool a newspaper has played.
This absence has left a hole in the nation's tradition of
wisecracking. However, this does not mean that in all this time
nobody has fooled the people.

Indonesians were wonder-struck when the authorities took over
the game in a manner that was far from humorous, but rather was
sourly insulting. For example, one year after the Jakarta-Bogor
highway was opened, the authorities announced the toll would be
abolished because the cost of the highway would soon be
recovered. What the people found the following year was that the
toll was not only still there, but had been significantly
increased.

In the 1980s, with a financial crisis looming, Soeharto's
economic minister announced there would be no rupiah devaluation
before the end of the year.

But two months later the national currency was embarrassingly
devaluated. Many people were shocked, but they could do nothing.
Some cynics joked that the regime meant there would be no
devaluation before the end of the Javanese calender year. The
devaluation took place weeks after the traditional Javanese New
Year.

The list of official "jokes" is too long to mention them all,
but we cannot forget when the Soeharto regime introduced the
SIUPP publishing license. Then minister of information Harmoko
said a publication's SIUPP could not be revoked because it was
the license for setting up a newspaper or magazine, not a
publication permit.

But Indonesians did not have to wait long until -- witnessed
by the world -- Harmoko banned more and more newspapers and
magazines. Under Soeharto every day was a cruel joke. Hopefully,
such vindictive acts will never again take place in this country.

-- TIS