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."