Young cartoonists skilled in biting satire

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.