I had a pretty interesting discussion today with Faisal and Franky (work colleagues) about Indonesian TV shows. About a year ago, the phenomenon of Indonesian Idol and AFI and other “dream-selling” reality shows withdrew a large amount of attention from viewers. Not only viewers, even the Presidential Election Candidates participated in this program in order to boost campaign and gain youth support and simpathy.

However that was then, now I think, Indonesian viewers are tired of politics and “star-wannabe” filled TV shows. The trend changes to mystical-”to-some-extent-religious”-misleading TV shows, like Rahasia Ilahi, Takdir Ilahi (TPI), Astagfirullah, Kuasa Ilahi (SCTV), Azab Ilahi, PadaMu Ya Rabb (Lativi), Taubat, (Trans TV), dan Titipan Ilahi (Indosiar). These shows are filled with weird-looking corpse as a punishment for all the sins the person has done while he/she was alive; and also with superhero-looking powerful “kyai” (a word for religious Islamic figure in Indonesia). Some shows transform the image of kyai as a person who preaches good teachings into some super power exorcist.

Another trend is TV shows that “sells” emotions and empathy, such as Uang Kaget, Bedah Rumah, Lunas, which basically has the same scenario. The show picks a lucky person, which is usually handicapped, has serious illness or unbelievably poor. They then dramatize the show in a way that it can really make you cry. For example, the target is a person who hasn’t been able to pay his debt to the hospital that treated his illness. The crew comes to the target’s house and asked him to pay all his debt, otherwise he’ll be put to jail (or some sort of threat). Because the target didn’t have that much money, the crew then asked the target to sell everything he’s got. So the target goes to a local market and sells everything he’s got (chairs, clothes, bicycle, you name it). Towards the end of the show, a couple of hot chicks dressed all in white come like angels to take his burden and gave him the money he needs to pay his debt. Exhausted,… the target then cries out of happiness because all his debt had been paid for. Pathetic.
Another kind of TV show, which, still sells emotions, but in a different way, are for example, H2C (Harap-harap Cemas) and Playboy Kabel, which helps a victim (usually a girl) to frame her boyfriend and catch him while he was cheating on her. Now this is, I think the nastiest show of all… this is “character assasination” to the extreme :P (But we’ll discuss about that some other time….)

Now morally, I think a lot of Indonesians are so much against these kind of shows. Even MUI as issued a letter to all TV stations and Government Offices about the negative impacts of these shows (specifically the mystical-”to-some-extent-religious”-misleading), and endorse them not to broadcast anymore of these shows. Because social awareness (intention of emotion-selling shows) and religious teachings (intention of mystical-”to-some-extent-religious”-misleading shows) can be done through other forms of TV shows.

Now the question is, “Do TV stations really want to get rid of these shows???”
Answer is… “Depends… Do people still watch it?” TV stations shows programs that are demanded highly by its viewers, because they can then gain a lot of profits by the adverts. So as long as people are still watching it, TV stations have no reason to “voluntarily” discontinue it. The truth is… many Indonesians watch these shows, and they like them.

So does that mean there’s no way to pull these programs off the TV? Nope. There is another way. Regulation enforcement. If the government also believes that these shows does more harm than good, then they can make a regulation for these kind of TV shows. The thing is… Indonesia has just entered an era where “freedom of expression” is highly uphold. So this will not be easy.

I myself, am amongst the people who hates these shows, but the best I can do is… to simply NOT watch it. Although I do insist that a portion of “entertainment” should still exist in TV shows. What is entertainment? That’s highly subjective, and I’ll leave that there.