Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 54

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Popular Culture Review

Governor Oka’s Political Performance Dance Cartoon

On sale at the 1997 Globalisasi exhibition was a book of cartoons by Wayan
Gunasta Pendit, who is popularly known as Gun Gun. I bought a copy but later
discovered that it was missing pages thirty-five through seventy. I returned to
exchange my defective copy only to discover that every one of the hundred or so
copies on sale was missing these same pages. My suspicions of censorship were
reinforced by the fact that all these missing pages came from the following two of
the nine topical sections: ""Politik'' and ""Ekonomr.
If the authorities did censor this book, they missed the cartoon on page 129
that caricatures Bali’s provincial governor, Ida Bagus Oka, as a traditional dancer.
At his feet some Indonesian coins are being thrown in appreciation of his
performance. These coins are drawn quite small (as shown in Appendix D, an
actual size reproduction of the cartoon). Also at his feet is a clear “Rp” sign (for
rupiah, the name of Indonesia’s currency), what could be some currency bills (the
incomplete sketches are quite ambiguous), and what might be interpreted as a
dollar sign.
A year later my tentative interpretation that this cartoon was subtly
communicating that Governor Oka was performing in office in return for money
was reinforced by additional information. First, some Australian friends gave me
an undated (circa June, 1998) clipping from their regional Australian newspaper
in which a Balinese professor was quoted as charging that Governor Oka and the
members of Bali’s provincial parliament don’t care about the island’s people. Rather
they just try to keep Jakarta happy and look after themselves.'^
Next, a well informed Balinese I questioned about Oka’s honesty answered in
an indirect but intriguing manner by saying that Governor Oka has a nice collection
of over thirty interesting automobiles. Finally, a Balinese friend gave me an
unpublished paper by Murdoch University (Australia) Professor Carol Warren.
She reports that when Balinese demonstrators protested against the BNR (Bali
Nirwana Resort) tourism magaprojet, they publicized the three different words the
BNR letters meant to them: Botak Nipu Rakhyat! (The Bald One Tricks the People!)
Warren explains that the “bald one” is Governor Oka and that whenever he is seen
on television or his name is mentioned, Balinese often shout “O.K.! Oka” because
he “OK’ed every development project that came down from Jakarta.”*'^
This additional evidence confirmed my guess that Gun Gun’s cartoon is a
subtle, ambiguous, and clever attack on Governor Oka’s political performance.
The environmentally and culturally controversial tourism megaprojects Oka’s
provincial government approved were largely financed by the powerful economic
and political elites of Jakarta, who were sometimes joined by foreign investors to
build resort hotels bearing such well known names as Hyatt, Hilton and Four
Seasons.