Wayang Narkoba: an innovative way to discuss drug, HIV related

Wayang Narkoba: an innovative way to discuss drug, HIV related issues

JP/17/WAYANG

'Wayang Narkoba': Helping people say 'no' to drugs

Sri Wahyuni The Jakarta Post Yogyakarta

In a royal plenary meeting held at the Palace of the Kingdom of Amarta, Prince Ontoseno conveys to King Puntadewa the threat of drug addiction to the morals of Amarta's youth.

The young people of the kingdom have become lazy and unreliable; they have become a useless generation who are capable of doing almost anything, including robbing and killing, just to satisfy their desperate need for heroin or other addictive drugs. They have the potential to spread chaos everywhere.

"And even more saddening, Your Majesty, is that many of these drug users are now living with HIV/AIDS," Prince Ontoseno said.

He said that this problem was a global phenomenon that was not just limited to Amarta, but also in other kingdoms such as Dwarawati and Astina, and in many other parts of the world such as America, Australia and Africa. At home, the phenomenon has been found throughout the country, including Yogyakarta.

This is the opening dialog of a shadow puppet (wayang) performance entitled Ontran-Ontran Bawono (The Chaos of the World), held here last Saturday night at Sasono Hinggil Dwi Abad at the Yogyakarta Palace compound, with puppeteer Ki Edi Indartono, or Tono Gito Gati as he is more popularly known.

It was indeed an unusual opening dialog for a wayang performance; one that would never be found in conventional Javanese wayang. Held to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the performance was specially designed to disseminate information related to drug use and HIV/AIDS.

The original scenario, written by Hudoyo Hupudio of the Aksi Stop AIDS (ASA) group, has been demonstrated to 19 puppeteers grouped under the National Secretariat of Indonesian Puppeteers (Senawangi), representing some 10 percent of the total number of puppeteers across the Java and Bali islands who shall receive training.

"We plan to train a total of 200 puppeteers as part of our program to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, through messages disseminated through wayang narkoba (anti-drug shadow puppet performances)," said Hudoyo, who is also an executive of Family Health International (FHI).

Narkoba is a common Indonesian abbreviation meaning narcotics and forbidden drugs.

The performance itself is a joint program involving Family Health International/Aksi Stop AIDS, the United State Agency for International Development (USAID), Land O'Lakes Inc., the Indonesian Humanity Committee (KKI), Senawangi, and the Association of Indonesian Puppetry (Pepadi), and is considered a break through in wayang performance.

Usually, when wayang performances are used to disseminate particular messages, the messages are inserted as interludes in the intermezzo parts of the story, e.g. the Limbuk Cangik and Goro-Goro scenes. In last Saturday's night-long performance, however, the messages were woven into the main story of the performance.

In this case, it was a story about a wayang kingdom (Amarta) that was experiencing a degradation of the morals of its young generation along with an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The story examined solutions to the problems.

The story tells of people dying or suffering from AIDS and of people using drugs and creating chaos. In one scene, Prince Ontoseno describes witnessing a family being evicted from a village after members of the family die due to AIDS.

In another scene he explains to his people the dangers of using drugs, and how sharing drug needles and having unprotected sex can lead to HIV infection. He tells of how a healthy, trustful way of life can protect them from being infected by the lethal disease.

"We already have medicine to treat people living with HIV/AIDS, but the medicine does not kill the virus. That's why they have to take the medicine every day for the rest of their lives. But it's quite safe to live with them in the same house, share the same toilet, or even hug them. So let them live their normal life with us. Never throw them out from the community," says Prince Ontoseno in one scene.

Wayang performance has long been known as an effective means for disseminating information to public. It has a long history of dealing with even the most sensitive and controversial issues in ways that make sense to the ordinary, traditional audiences.

During the early development of Islam in Java, for example, Sunan Kalijaga of the Wali Sanga (the nine pious Muslim leaders who brought Islam to the island) used wayang as a preaching medium. It also played a key role during the New Order era in educating Indonesians about family planning. And more recently, it has been used to communicate issues related to regional autonomy in the country.

"We still find it difficult to publicly talk about issues related to sex, condoms, or drug use in our community here. It is through a traditional performance like this that we can talk about these issues more freely," Ki Edi Indartono said.

Puppeteer Ki Enthus Susmono of Tegal, Central Java, who was also in the audience, and even took part in the story as a guest star, concurred. He said that people should not be overly concerned about the so-called pakem (agreed source book for playing a traditional performance), and should not be afraid of innovation.

"Instead, we should consider it (innovations) as enriching the existing pakem. If people ask you which pakem is it referring to, then simply say that it is the pakem of wayang narkoba. So, let's call it Wayang Narkoba," Enthus told the audience on the night.

The same play was scheduled to be performed at the Surakarta (Solo) Palace. However, due to objections from some local senior puppeteers, the performance was replaced with a traditional one with Ki Enthus Susmono as the puppeteer.