This text is the first draft of a lecture performance script written by Indonesian artist duo Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina for “Nusantara Archive 2023: The Southern Linguistics Project.” Drawing on digitalized Japanese colonial-era Malay dictionaries from the National Taiwan Library—provided by researcher Rikey Tenn—such as Anyone Can Understand Malay Quickly (1942) by Yuichi Furuyama, as well as Japanese occupation-era propaganda materials they found at the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta—like the magazine Djawa Baroe (1943)—and other metaphors and writings referencing social realities, this script of under 30 minutes tentatively sketches the efforts and limitations of reflecting language ideologies through the artistic practice of lecture performance.
Indonesia national anthem in a propaganda film of Japanese military occupation 1942 (0:46):
- WE ARE IN THE GREATER EAST ASIAN WAR AS FIGHT, ALIVE WITH DAI NIPPON.
- WE ESTABLISHED THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF INDONESIA AS A MEMBER OF THE GREATER EAST ASIAN FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.
- WE ARE ENTERPRISES, MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE.
- WE DEVOTE SINCERELY TO THE COUNTRY AND NATION BY PAYING FAITH TO GOD.
- WE ARE FIGHTING TOWARDS WORLD PEACE, ACCORDING TO THE FOUNDATIONS OF HAKKO ICHIU (八紘一宇).
Prologue:
Audio: Music played in distortion/reverse/feedback effect, derived from the song Indonesia Raya.
During the Japanese occupation of Java (1942-1945), propaganda was spread through various media and events. One of them was the Djawa Baroe magazine as the light of the rising sun in Java, as well as information inviting people to follow, obey and believe in the older brother from the East.
The Koeli and Romusha film scenario was adapted into a serial edition in Djawa Baroe, complete with key scene photos. Written by J. Hoetagaloeng and selected as the winner of a film scenario competition about romusha(forced labor) held by Sendenbu (宣傳部) and Djawa Roomu Kyokai (爪哇労務協会).
This prompted us to write the first draft of a short performance script and present it before it is adapted or staged sometime in the future. The writing process was based on Japanese-Malay language learning materials (field visits, discussing and interpreting research materials with Rikey Tenn), black and white propaganda films. Of course, a geopolitical reflection where Irwan and Tita are in the process of making their artistic journey in the ring of fire.
(The stage is empty.)
Irwan/Tita enter the stage, directing the audience to enter the performance room in a parallel position.
Irwan’s position is standing at the beginning and Tita is at the end.
Irwan hands over objects / artifacts / evidence; strands of hair, head lice, nits, sharpened bamboo, coal from West Sumatra, Malaria medicine, hair clippers, reflective plastic, glass/mirrors, spotlights, small tables, and so on.
All the properties that will be performed are handed over in estafet by each audience member’s hand until they reach the next end. Tita collects and arranges everything according to the predetermined order.
ACT 1: The Shifted Direction of Qibla
On-screen text: What is the current socio-political situation and what is your attitude as an artist?
A conversation like this can easily be diverted if the person we are talking to tries subtly to avoid the possibility of a clash of opinions. However, if there is an in-depth discussion, there is still the potential for a similar clash to occur, especially since each identity has a complex background. At the same time, it is in the light of the same black sun, such as the rise of the right-wing group in Europe or the setting of the democracy index of countries in Southeast Asia.
On-screen text: How do you find a complicated answer without having to be emotional?
According to information from a forensic doctor who works at the Jakarta Police Hospital, there is one day a year when the suicide rate at a young age in several big cities in Indonesia increases. That fateful day is: February 14, please guess why this day, full of the light of love, has become a day full of darkness.
I still didn’t know how to act when on February 14 this year there was a democratic eclipse that would make the mythological bird Garuda think about taking early retirement.
Photo: Rikey Tenn, 2024
Today, impunity is displayed openly both on screen and in the personal realm, also becoming a toxic radiation emitted by a superstructure called the state, in which Indonesia does not want to be left behind. The quick count results on February 14, 2024 reported that a general who violated human rights is set to become the next president.
What can be expected from dynastic politics mixed with political cartels that play with laws and the constitution?
On-screen text: So what kind of art emerges from these conditions? Where are the artists?
Stage act:
Exploring the reflection of reflectors, glass and mirrors forming polarized light that moves in the room, hitting the bodies of the audience, the sounds from the plastic reflectors are captured by contact mics.
We respond together with the arts and culture communities with the remnants of the fermented-reform-movement that have smelled stale. Hoping to raise voices to eclipse the light of the sun, including the threat of silencing freedom of expression which is accompanied by the low rational ability of society to see today’s reality.
The resistance movement against the darkness initially flowed smoothly. But the intention to gather and consolidate was finally sunk, destroyed like demonstrators who scattered when attacked by tear gas.
This could be due to the inability to maintain momentum or today’s discourse which is very vulnerable to polarization. Efforts to create reconciliation have instead thickened prejudice and hatred between groups.
On the other hand, for me, this failure provides a moment to recalibrate the compass of my soul. Moreover, there is a new wave that brings closeness between art, artists and mainstream institutions that are so necessary to maintain sustainability, choosing to embrace state funding intimately even though there is no emotional connection between the two. Asleep day and night, in a thick and yet not necessarily comfortable blanket of self-censorship.
On-screen text: Where are the other artists?
They are absorbed by the market, their work reduced to glittering content. Meanwhile, other artists drown under the shadow of ‘FOMO’ curators who are also too lazy to give more honest souls a shout.
Nongkrong, cross-disciplinary, participatory, cultural strategy, community, alternative, gotong royong, collective, lumbung, spectrum of tokenism become magic mantras circulating in seductive proposals prioritizing budget amount that ending up with project reports and ‘sacred’ mandatory logos.
On-screen image: Compilation of screenshots of art projects receiving Indonesian funds in one template.
The cultural politics have produced effective commodities to breastfeed art brokers by adding the ‘global south’ exoticism taste which in reality is commonly ‘marketed’ abroad. The red carpet was rolled out by European Union cultural policies that tried to cram their expectations about how ‘ideal’ art and artists from Third World countries are.
Poem: Read together with audience
Need makes dependency
Dependence makes obedience
Obedience makes blindness
Blindness makes loss
Loss makes need (repeat once)
On-screen video: Footage of Irwan & Tita and some people pushing a truck tire
Even though I have calibrated the compass of my soul, I have not yet found the right sun to shine on my dark and gloomy heart.
The axis of East or West?
I decided to return to the starting point of Asianness, Indonesianess, independence, identity that accumulated in the historical space and the surge of nationalism that today is so banal.
Reopening the documentation of the Japanese occupation of Java and the archipelago brought me to an understanding of the blazing light of fascism, propaganda, art, artists and language.
In Java, as an island with a Muslim majority, Japanese certainly had to find an effective language to change the behavior of its colonized people. In public ceremonies, Javanese people are required to perform a gesture of ‘respect’ towards Tokyo in the East. This is impossible for every Muslim who is required to orient the body towards Mecca. With language that may also act repression, Javanese Muslim figures obediently added a new direction facing their bodies toward the sunrise.
Photo: Rikey Tenn, 2024
ACT 2: Mala-ria, Mala-ri, Mala-petaka (Mala-ria, Malari incident, Catastrophe)
Footage:
Stage act:
Opening the malaria medication package, taking one pill, directing it at a source of light to create a solar eclipse effect.
On-screen text: Hydroxychloroquine side effects:
- Hearing loss or ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Mental problems and mood changes, such as anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts
- Seizures
- Unusual bruising or bleeding
- Fast or irregular heartbeat
- Chest pain
- Dark urine
- Jaundice
- Hair loss or lighter hair color
Photo of Irwan cleaning Junghuhn’s grave overlaid with Junghuhn’s volcano drawings)
Text: Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (born October 26, 1809, Mansfeld. Died: April 24, 1864, Lembang, Bandung
The development of the Cinchona tree in Java was initiated by Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (the arrival of the Cinchona tree in Java was allegedly smuggled from Peru). With the anti-Malaria drug found in the bark of the Cinchona tree, Europeans were increasingly free to avoid one of the most vicious tropical epidemics at that time, namely Malaria. Until the end of the 19th century, the island of Java became home to two-thirds of the world’s largest production of Cinchona. Junghuhn was someone who was obsessed with the island of Java and its burning volcanoes. He mapped and depicted the craters of the mountains so completely and precisely as if he could see the peaks of the mountains or the surface of the craters using a drone.
Allegedly due to acute infection, Junghuhn died in Lembang, Bandung. When death came to him, he begged to leave the world as he witnessed a mystical volcano: Tangkuban Parahu.
On-screen video: Drone footage of the crater of Tangkuban Perahu
Music: lifted-up
On-screen text: Malaria/Malari
From Malaria to Malari.
Malari 1974 (Malapetaka Lima Belas Januari or January Fifteenth Catastrophe) in Jakarta.
Audio: Artificial Intelligence Voice over on Developmentalism combined with footage of the Malari incident
“Developmentalism is an economic theory that states that the development of third-world countries can be achieved well through strong and diverse domestic markets and high tariffs on imported goods.
Developmentalists believe that national autonomy in third world countries can be achieved and maintained through the utilization of external resources from capitalist countries. In this definition, developmentalism is a paradigm used to reverse the negative impact of international economics on developing countries in the 1950s and 1960s, when Latin American countries began to implement import substitution strategies. With this theory, economic development is designed according to modern Western criteria: economic success is created according to the capitalist mindset that a country needs to be developed, autonomous, and legally established.
This theory is based on the assumption that in addition to three stages of development applicable to all countries, there is a linear movement from one stage to another that stretches from a traditional or primitive economy to a modern or industrialized economy.”
Enyaraya (えんやらや)…!
Pressure from developed countries, third world economic schemes, GDP, growth, infrastructure development, monoculture, debt, debt and debt. Indonesia is the wheel of the market, consumers, cheap labor, an instrument of a structurally corrupt state, a poverty of common sense, an economic animal, hypocritical, superstitious, but also very artistic.
Photo: Rikey Tenn, 2024
On-screen text: The wheels of vehicles in the congested, hot and polluted city of Jakarta are the products of Japanese and Chinese branded vehicles, amputating the legs of the malnourished.
On-screen video: Irwan and Tita pushing a tire
Stage act: Irwan eats a round malaria pill while sitting on his knees.
On-screen text: How’s the developmentalist art movement?
ACT 3: A Male Orator Who Changes Direction
Yuichi Furuyama, Anyone Can Understand Malay Quickly, 1942, published by Sobundo Bookstore Co., Ltd.
As in the story of the Exodus of Moses, in Momotaro (桃太郎 or Peach Boy; brought by the Japanese to Java) and the fairy tale of Ciung Wanara from the eastern Sundanese, it always begins with a figure (and always a male, why?) who becomes the bringer of an eclipse for the black sun.
A Japanese propaganda film about a gathering of Sumatera Baru Muslims and Buya Hamka
In the Japanese propaganda material, several influential male figures appear as leaders of the crowd. Like a compass, they determine where the public’s thoughts should go. The actions of these influencers/orators are certainly closely related to culture and identity, it is almost impossible for a Japanese (without the power of arms) to give directions in his language to the Javanese people, who have various accents and dialects.
The use of Malay language roots, along with their absorption, further strengthens the Youth Pledge in 1928; speaking one language, Bahasa Indonesia. After the transfer of power from the Netherlands to Japan, Bahasa Indonesia had not found its official role, instead it had to accept a new language. How can a pledge then be revised?
Characterization was prepared.
Among the many emergence figures –from the religious group (who specially had performed the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca) to independence movement group (who received higher education in the Netherlands), as well as artists, writers–whoever was considered capable of influencing the Javanese people with Japan’s short, medium and long-term goals.
Although the context at that time could be very different from what we experience today.
How did the accumulation of feelings become a soon-to-be-independent nation after centuries under European oppression?
What aspirations were born from that spirit?
Where would the cultural axis go, to the East or West?
Soekarno himself understood this ‘game’ very well. He transformed into a perfect figure for Japan to carry its propaganda messages, like a puppet that had to appear on camera with all its ‘opportunism’. He understood very well the power of recording media, which was still very rare at that time. This media would make him the rising sun, destined to shine and illuminate the archipelago in the future.
In photo documentation, Soekarno appeared as a Muslim figure praying facing the Qibla in the front row of congregational prayer and drank sake with the Japanese military at the same time. With the slogan ‘Every drop of sweat is poison for the enemy,’ he became an effective spokesperson enticing people in Java to become Romusha. Forced migration occurred on a large scale to Sumatra, Burma, Maluku, New Guinea. The fate of these workers ended so tragically, many never returned, and disappeared into oblivion. Meanwhile, Soekarno rose as the sun whose glare blinded the eyes of the heart.
ACT 4: The Death of the Light
On-screen video: Walking on the old Japanese coal train track/tunnel/cave from afternoon to sunset (continued).
Are the people who experienced forced labor considered heroes?
History records that Indonesia got its freedom from the shackles of colonialism. But after 79 years of independence, this nation somehow seemed trapped in an endless cycle of ‘nationalist construction’.
On-screen text: ‘Nationalist Construction’
This ideology is confusing because it is philosophically weak and the figures who supported it have passed away.
Indeed, in the development of identity or nation, deceased people have stronger influences than those who are still alive.
The spirit to fight for glowing nationalism is not simple, it needs to be ignited by ambitious and gigantic development projects and the flame of heroism. In every city in Indonesia there is at least one hero’s grave, whether it is related or not, the presence of the grave as a holy place is part of nationalism’s wheel.
Today there is no reasonable context to consider someone a hero or if they die worthy enough to be buried in a hero’s grave.
After Japan surrendered to the allies, they gradually returned to their country, but there were also some members of the Japanese imperial army, some even were Koreans who decided to remain in Java. Despite their various reasons, they supported the war of independence – with their military expertise – against the Dutch and allied forces who attempted to return and take over Indonesia after the surrender of Japan.
The controversy to this day still leaves many unresolved issues for both sides, as victims from Indonesia and many European descent living in Indonesia at the time also became targets of violence. Is this related to the hatred toward Europeans/Americans that was propagated through mural art, film scripts, and some articles in Djawa Baroe?
Then what about the Japanese soldiers who chose to remain in Indonesia until their death? Did they also become a flame symbol of nationalism, or the eclipse of ideological light?
Photo: Rikey Tenn, 2024
Music: Time-warp-sorrow
On-screen video: (continued video) Walking on the old Japanese coal train track/tunnel/cave from sunset to dark
ACT 5: The Sinking of A Feeling
On-screen video: Footage of Javanese youth with bald heads undergoing military training, transitioning to present-time Indonesian migrant workers with shaved heads sent to Japan.
On-screen video: Japanese unboxing video along with bullying comments from Indonesian netizens
https:// instagram.com/p/C_zTZ5eKVS_/
Stage act: Irwan and Tita sharpening bamboos with the background sound of a person learning Malay to Japanese combined with the sounds of bullying Netizens.
Continue with Takeyari’s improvisational movements synchronization, 5 minutes.
On-screen video with sound: footage of a volcano and still images of the Djawa Baru magazine. The rumbling sound of the crater, the cheers of a large number of people.
Poem:
Bamboo speaks the language of steadfastness,
Not in defiance, but in quiet strength.
How does bamboo withstand the atomic blast,
As ideology sways within the heart of the fireball?
A death of feeling, a cycle of destruction and genocide,
An eclipse upon reason’s light.
Clouds of smoke entwined with dust shroud the black sun,
While Netflix streams, WhatsApp whispers,
And the remnants of war linger on.
On-screen video: Irwan and Tita rolled a used truck tire and tried to cover the rising sunlight with it, like a solar eclipse. The truck tire rolled as it was pushed and fell into the crater.
— End —
—[SCR]
