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