'The West Wing' looks at puzzle of Indonesia

'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.