Victitious character Bogler voice of regular Balinese

Victitious character Bogler voice of regular Balinese

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Mead, Bateson, Geertz and Covarrubias, or their contemporaries
like Vickers and Picard, might have been able to describe Bali
and the Balinese to the world in various scholarly ways. None of
them, however, could beat Made Bogler's clarity and simplicity in
portraying the contemporary Balinese.

Bogler is a fictitious cartoon character that has been
baptized as the official mascot of the country's only cartoon
magazine, Bogbog, which celebrated its second birthday in April.

On the island, where cultural identity and existence depends
on its age-old rice-growing agriculture and communal agrarian
values, Made Bogler is an embodiment of the contemporary
Balinese, who are torn apart by the waves of modern development
that have eaten away at the island.

Yet, instead of falling apart, the contemporary Balinese have
worked hard at finding a new balance, a new paradigm, to enjoy
the modern world's comforts and luxuries without having to throw
out their cultural roots. It's a matter of being a techno-yuppie
member of the World Trade Organization and a cultured farmer of
the local banjar, or village, at the same time. Sometimes the
Balinese succeed, sometimes they don't. As a result, paradoxes
abound on Bali.

Made Bogler is the designated, ultimate paradox-spotter of the
magazine, despite the fact that he sometimes indulges in
paradoxes himself.

"The magazine is not only trying to make people laugh, but
also to lead people on a journey of self-reflection by making
them laugh at themselves, their mistakes, hypocrisies and
inconsistencies," said Bogbog's chief editor Jango Paramartha.

In all fourteen editions of the magazine, Bogbog and Bogler
laugh at the Balinese, and thus at themselves, on various
matters, from the over-abundance of golf courses to the
Balinese's never-ending fear of superstitions and black magic --
even in this age of space exploration -- to the mass-tourism
policy that chips away at the backbone of local culture, defined
by rice fields, communality and the Balinese's obsessive fixation
on grand religious ceremonies that forces spirituality to go into
hiding.

"After two years of publishing, we realized the Balinese are
very tolerant of criticism, particularly when they are delivered
by fellow Balinese in a comical manner. Bogler is a Balinese, and
no doubt, he is a humorous little fellow. Perhaps that's why most
people are not offended by his censures," Jango said.

Made Bogler was created by leading Balinese cartoonist Cece
Riberu, who, curiously, happens to be a dark-skinned, curly-
haired, Balinese of Flores origin.

"In my mind, Bogler is a naive and carefree boy -- not a city
boy, but a boy who is brought up in a rural setting, where
villages are dotted with paddy fields and rituals take place on a
daily basis. His belly is bigger than usual, since mine is, too,"
Cece said.

"He is certainly naive, but also mischievous. Balinese usually
call a mischievous boy 'Dogler', so that's why we decided to call
our mischievous mascot Bogler," said one of Bogbog's editors,
Putu Ebo.

The character's first name is Made, a generic identifier for a
second-born child in Bali, because the funny guys at Bogbog
wanted to be humble in sending the message that somebody wiser
and smarter than them exists somewhere out there.

In an indirect way, they also wanted to convey the message
that Bogbog and Bogler do not represent the voice of the elite,
the haves or the powerful, but the voice of the ordinary
Balinese.

Says another editor, Surya Dharma, "It means that there is
somebody who came before him, somebody older and wiser. Bogler
and Bogbog are not the first. We are Number Two, but we try
harder."