'The West Wing' looks at puzzle of Indonesia
By Antariksawan Jusuf and Haryanto
JAKARTA (JP): What is Indonesia? In some Americans' view, it is just a big confusion of a country on the other side of the world, literally and figuratively. Well, at least when it comes to Hollywood, generalizations and stereotyping are certainly nothing new.
American president Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) wonders aloud to his Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) in Saturday's episode of The West Wing about how such a boring Indonesian president, who only utters "yes" or "no" to the press, could have campaigned and won.
"Then I remembered, we usually rig the election," Bartlet says.
To White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), Indonesia is a country whose leaders are dictators oppressing their people while stealing their money. A country which does not deserve to be called a "friend" by America.
Shown at 9 p.m. every Saturday, Emmy award-winning The West Wing is TV-dom's take on American political policy-making. It's also about the lives of people working in the White House and particularly the nitty-gritty of what happens within its walls.
With a strong cast, it pictures astute people working in a fast-paced environment to deal with issues which affect the lives of ordinary Americans.
In episode number seven on Saturday, titled The State Dinner, Bartlet hosts a dinner for Indonesian President Siguto (or should it be Sugito instead?) in between his hectic schedule of coping with domestic affairs such as a strike, contingency preparations for Hurricane Sarah and a siege situation in Idaho.
Some details of the show reveal a bit of a lack of knowledge of what Indonesia is all about. For example, the appearance of misled state interpreter Minaldi and a Portuguese Batak-speaking cook are wasted in cultural blunders.
Claiming there is no such language as Indonesian because Indonesians speak 583 different languages, Minaldi then sets out proving the opposite. Minaldi, who claims he speaks Javanese, said that the cook and presidential aide Bambang Sumahidjo (certainly a Javanese by his name) only speak Batak together. Then, in the actual scene, all three converse in Indonesian.
Still, the writers of the episode also take a bold step in depicting an alleged "standard practice" of American diplomats toward their counterparts from developing nations in a scene when Ziegler harangues Bambang about the imprisonment of his friend, a Frenchman, in Indonesia for organizing antigovernment demonstrations. Another probable Indonesian clunker comes through when Ziegler advises him to have the authorities drive the man "to the border and let him go", which would be impossible in the archipelagic country unless the man was being held in Kalimantan or Irian Jaya.
Minaldi counters that why should he do him a favor when the U.S. president had humiliated Siguto by bringing up human rights in his dinner speech.
"Please understand ... that with so many people watching, with so much media coverage, it was important for us to make clear that the United States has its commitment to human rights as an obligation," Ziegler argued.
It is the Indonesian's opportunity to hold his own.
"Mr. Ziegler, does it strike you as at all hypocritical that a people who systematically wiped out a century's worth of Native Americans should lecture the world so earnestly on human rights?"
After the American admits that it does, Minaldi tells him in no uncertain terms what to do with himself.
The West Wing, unlike many Hollywood movies and U.S. series, it shows Americans for once on the losing side. But it's just fiction anyway. Avid film lovers can easily run off lists of previous American movies/series which depict Indonesia as either a safe haven for big-time American criminals (Katts and Dog, 1988), a place for corrupt police officials (King Kong, 1976) or market for illegal arms (The Devil's Advocate, 1997).
But, again, it's pure fiction, isn't it?
The writers are staff of SCTV.