Young cartoonists skilled in biting satire

I Wayan Juniartha, Ubud, Bali

I Wayan Gunasta pointed to the drawing, and spoke out in amazement.

"It was made by a young girl, an elementary school student. It's amazing that a mind so young could produce such a cartoon that is both fresh and provocative," he said.

This was not insignificant praise, especially coming from Gunasta, one of the island's leading cartoonists. Popularly known as Gungun, his original character, I Brewok, has been immortalized on one of the nation's postage stamps.

His cartoon strip, which mostly deals with political issues, is a regular feature in the Sunday edition of the island's biggest newspaper, the Bali Post.

The cartoon that drew Gungun's amazement depicted a woman dressed in traditional kebaya, sporting green sunglasses and a cell phone earpiece, and riding along on an orange scooter.

At the rear of the scooter was a baggage box emblazoned with the words "Delivery Order". The names of several common Balinese Hindu offerings, such as canang sari and daksine, were also listed on the baggage box.

"This is a humorous, poignant illustration of contemporary Bali, of its people and religion, which are struggling to accommodate modernity and capitalism. It's a good cartoon," said another cartoonist, Jango Paramartha.

Jango is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the island's -- and the nation's -- only cartoon magazine Bogbog.

An increasing number of Balinese Hindu families have ceased to make their own daily offerings and rely instead on house-to-house vendors for offerings. The offerings business has now become a lucrative industry. These issues are currently running hot in local printed media and television talk shows.

Gungun and Jango certainly heaped great praise on the cartoon, and certainly intellectualized a little over it. However, it turned out that the girl who draw the cartoon was not at all inspired by sociological or anthropological treatises on contemporary Bali. Instead, she was simply moved by small and seemingly mundane daily events.

"I have to make an offering every day, usually in the evening. Sometimes, this can be a really boring chore and sometimes I wish there was some kind of delivery service that specialized in offerings in my neighborhood, so I could order an offering in the same way that I order a pizza," Karina Mega said.

A cute, timid little girl with dark skin, chubby stature and an infectious smile, Karina is a sixth-grader at Denpasar's SD 2 Saraswati elementary school.

Her cartoon was one of some 140 that were exhibited recently at the Pendet Museum in Nyuhkuning village, Ubud.

"All the displayed works were submitted by elementary and junior high school students, who participated in the cartoon- drawing contest co-organized by children's tabloid Lintang and the Pendet Museum," Lintang editor-in-chief Mas Ruscitadewi said.

Karina's work won first prize in the elementary school category in that contest.

Another student cartoonist, Tiffanie DS of Taman Rama elementary school, also poked fun at daily events. Her drawing depicted a road being closed, not by the police but by the pecalang (traditional security guards), who order a motorist to make a detour.

Several boards are placed across the road, each of them revealing a reason behind the road closure. One reads "Religious Ceremony" while others state "Wedding Ceremony for Governor's Son" and "Drainage Work Ahead".

Standing at the side of the road were two perplexed westerners with a tourist map in hand that had been rendered useless by the closure.

"It is an honest portrayal of Balinese people's annoying and disruptive habit of closing a road every time they hold a ceremony, religious or otherwise," Ruscitadewi said.

Meanwhile, Daniel, who declined to reveal the name of his school due to the sensitive nature of his cartoon, exposed one of the ironies of the education system.

His cartoon portrayed a rebellious student, who points out that the examination questions are exactly the ones the teacher had provided to students who enrolled in her private tutorial sessions.

Many teachers on the island run private, out-of-school tutorial sessions and this practice has been repeatedly identified as a root of favoritism and biased treatment toward students. Many students are too poor to pay for private tuition.

"These students really know how to produce hard-hitting, trenchant cartoons. Maybe it's time for me to retire early," Gungun observed wryly.