Diving Down into Indonesia’s Deepest Secrets: Explaining the Lost Media Iceberg
Shedding light on the somber side of Indonesian history
WARNING
This following article contains several references mentioning mature, violent, sexual, and disturbing materials. Any reader below the age of 18 shall not proceed. Reader discretion is advised.
Any redistribution and derivation of this article, either completely or partially, is strongly prohibited without credit and permission in advance.
Recently, I was bugged by a Twitter thread I read a long time ago, made by an account with the handle (at)girlhell_1999 in the middle of August 2021. The tweets discussed an intriguing curation of Indonesian lost media in an iceberg format. The thread was, I would say, creepy by nature, but is interesting to be explained given how many hidden stories of bizarre occurrences, national scandals and true crimes, or simply niche events that most Indonesian public wouldn’t recollect in their memory because of how strange and unknown those stories are, and to note that Indonesian communication infrastructure was not as advanced as it is today, so the spread of information is limited to people with complete access to printed and internet publications. Even though the thread garnered some closure about certain items, it did not thoroughly discuss and compile the lost media in a structured, well-defined manner, and I am annoyed with this.
Given how obscure this scene is already for the Indonesian public, I am proudly here offering an explanation for both Indonesians and foreigners that may have stumbled upon the image or topic. I think it’s unfair that obscure Indonesian pop cultures and urban legends are not that recognizable for the internet masses, especially Western news outlets and YouTube creators, as we are more informed towards cliched (or boring) obscure information from other Asian nations, like Japan, China, or Korea. So, I believe this article would serve a chance to illustrate what our lost media are like and to give you another perspective of uncanny Indonesian secrets.
I would attach the link of the original image posted on the Twitter thread right here for credit and put the image copy down here to give the reader the complete illustration of how was the lost media list compiled together. Actually, there are other versions of Indonesian iceberg illustration with varying elements made by curious, if not adventurous people out there, but I would attach this version only because of its higher notability and enough compilation as the main reason.
In order to make things straight and organized, I would give a simple and brief explanation to each item of every tier, compiled in a descending order, only just to give a context of what is the item about, followed by a category indicator as assigned in the top left of the original image, i.e. “F” for found but obscure (ditemukan namun remang-remang), “PF” for partly found or almost lost (ditemukan sebagian/hampir hilang), and “LC” for lost or confidential (hilang atau dirahasiakan). The item would then be sorted by its discoverability, so the “F”s or white categories are told first, then the “LC”s or red categories later.
So, let’s dive deep in.
Tier 1: The Tip of the Iceberg
1. REG <spasi> XXXX kirim ke XXXX (F)
This text is a template instruction from television or magazine for mobile subscriptions that people can do in cellphones via SMS for certain services, ranging from customizable ring back tones and daily tailored message (like how BuzzFeed and general subscription emails work today).
The line stands for: register <space> XXXX (service code) send to XXXX (the provider’s number). My guess of why this item is notable is because many of these subscription services are a literal scam and nonsense, because back in the 2000s, Indonesian public are pretty much digitally-illiterate and still invested in hoaxes. So, many digital providers are offering services like horoscope, divination, and fortune-telling via SMS, even involving several public figures to gain trust, like Deddy Corbuzier, an Indonesian magician-turned-podcaster today and the late Mama Lauren, a Dutch-Indonesian paranormal and clairvoyant who died in 2010, that were pretty much a paid con trickery. Apart from the scam notoriety, the service was also known for being expensive and misleading the customers, raising the label of “makan pulsa” or consuming the credit, as phone credit was pricey and relatively a luxury for common Indonesians in the past.
2. Game Java (F)
The name speaks for itself. Java games, in this case J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), were the main source of mobile entertainment back in 2000s Indonesia, before Apple and Android upsurge in the 2010s. Some games remain notable for the Indonesian public like Nokia’s original Snake and Bounce Tales. Even third party games like The Sims, Asphalt, and Tower Bloxx made by famous developers such as Electronic Arts, GLU Mobile, Digital Chocolate, and Gameloft still may be remembered by millennials.
3. Waptrick (F)
Waptrick was a J2ME (Java) application and digital distribution platform made circa 2006. This website was popular because it was very accessible for Indonesians to download pirated J2ME software via WAP internet and basic mobile browser like Opera Mini made for microplatforms like Nokia S40 and Symbian, thanks to its simple text-based interface and ad-less user experience. The service later declined as legal and popular digital service providers like Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and BlackBerry World entered the Indonesian market. Due to the rise of smartphones, Waptrick and its curation of pirated software was long gone, never to be found.
4. Naruto Dub Indosiar (F)
Not much information available about this item, but I guess it’s a simple dubbing or voice acting difference. For context, Masashi Kishimoto’s renowned Naruto anime was aired in two different Indonesian television channels, namely Indosiar and Global TV (now GTV). Generally, most people would agree that the notable airings are from Global TV because they ran the airing longer than Indosiar’s and in more complete episodes.
However, several people commented that, due to Indosiar’s slow, weekly airing of Naruto, the dubbing is more precise and contextual to the Japanese counterparts, meanwhile several terminology in Global TV’s lost in translation, possibly of a rushed dubbing. Another source says that generally, Naruto airing in Indonesia itself suffered a problem as it experienced changing of seiyuu or voice actors too much due to the simultaneous broadcasting of Naruto in Indosiar and Global TV (also Animax, a cable television channel) although the two channels bought and handled different episode licenses.
5. Spongebob Dub Lativi (F)
Ibid. to number 4. Spongebob Squarepants was aired for several years in Lativi (now tvOne) from February 2, 2004 to January 31, 2006. On February 1, 2006, Global TV (now GTV) bought Spongebob’s broadcasting license from Nickelodeon and it is aired by Global TV until now. Because of Spongebob migration from Lativi to Global TV, the dubbing scripts for several episodes that were previously dubbed by Lativi were revised by Global TV. Some voice actors were also changed in the subsequent seasons.
One thing that I remember, Lativi and Global TV dub has several lines or jokes, that in some cases is funnier both in Lativi or in Global TV, so there is an inconsistency of translation compared to the original American script of Spongebob. Some puns adapted into Indonesian were also lost translation in either Lativi or Global TV dub. An extensive dialogue comparison of the translation differences, discussed in a Kaskus thread, could be read here.
For a case study, you could watch the dub comparison here from the episode “Idiot Box”. In the comparison, we could observe that Lativi involves translation in a milder tone with no cuss, while Global TV introduced several translation in a much bolder tone with straight-forward curses, which are still reasonable for children, like bodoh (dumb).
An excerpt of the episode “Idiot Box” taken from the clip of Squidward dialogue with Spongebob and Patrick:
English: “[yells in SpongeBob and Patrick’s faces] don’t you two have any brains?!”
Indonesian (Lativi): “Apa kalian tidak punya nilai?” (Don’t you guys have values?) (Implies Spongebob’s and Patrick’s lack of reasoning ability)
Indonesian (Global TV): “Apa kalian tidak punya otak?” (Don’t you guys have brains?) (Implies Spongebob’s and Patrick’s idiocy in an insulting manner)
Apart from dubbing and voice acting differences, Spongebob airing format in Global TV was different from Lativi. According to a video essay, Lativi’s Spongebob is played uncut while Global TV’s cut the Nickelodeon’s station ID, intro, and credit title, for duration sake. Lativi’s Spongebob does not censor scenes even for the one with an adult and violence innuendo while Global TV’s gradually suffered censor in which currently criticized for its very excessive censorship. Lativi’s Spongebob played the original soundtrack with Indonesian subtitles while Global TV’s don’t and cut it altogether. And there are several other minor to medium differences of both editions.
6. Skandal Giselle (F)
As the name, this is a scandal involving a famous Indonesian celebrity, singer, and actress, Gisella Anastasia, simply goes by Gisel, over a leaked adult video in 2020 allegedly to be hers. At first, she denied the scandal, but then confessed to the public. The reason why this item is popular because Gisel is famous for her image as a “happy, glamorous, role model family woman” and a devout Christian, probably equivalent to Kardashian’s popularity except the negatives, and her seemingly okay marriage with Gading Marten, another famous Indonesian male celebrity, together known for their family activities in infotainment programs televised nationally. Many public and her celebrity peers were disappointed by her scandal, saying it as a “disgusting action” and her failure to maintain loyalty with Marten after having their first daughter, Gempita, who is loved by the public. They later divorced and Gempita’s custody is given to Gisel.
7. Ariel, Cut Tari, Luna Maya (F)
Another adult video scandal, this one is an Indonesian classic housewives gossip back in 2010 when three videos shown to be involving an Indonesian vocalist from Peterpan band (now NOAH), Nazril Irham, or his stage name Ariel, with actresses, Cut Tari and Luna Maya, were leaked to the public. This item is notable simply because of Ariel’s ongoing relationship with Maya and Tari’s marriage with Johannes Yusuf Subrata, who then divorced in 2014. Ariel was sentenced for 3,5 years in prison for violation of illegal digital information distribution and pornography law.
The scandal brought up a discourse about Indonesian moral standard, mostly engaged by conservative Muslim organizations and politicians at that time. Even the Minister of Communication and Informatics, Tifatul Sembiring, a politician from a Islamic fundamentalist party, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, commented the event as “endangering Indonesian national values”.
8. Chat Syur Rizieq-Firza (F)
Another adult video scandal (again). This one is involving an infamous Indonesian hardline Islamist cleric, Rizieq Shihab, a Yemeni-Indonesian religious scholar, with Firza Husein, a sympathizer of a subversive Islamist vigilante paramilitary organization called Front Pembela Islam (FPI) ‘Islamic Defender Front’. They were allegedly engaged in an illegal sexual picture and message exchange via WhatsApp in 2017, proven by several screenshots leaked on the internet. The case is phenomenal because it’s highly politicized, namely because Shihab led the November 2016 Jakarta protest and 212 Movement that caused another politicized imprisonment of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Jakarta incumbent governor-running for election in 2017, because of his controversial video whom allegedly “blasphemed” the Quranic text. Shihab later fled to Saudi Arabia for several years of trial aversion. Several photos during his exile were viral on the internet, showing his hiding home with the Islamic State flag or the Black Standard being displayed in front of his house.
9. Salam Pramuka (F)
This was a disgusting CP video spread on the Indonesian internet back in 2016. The case was notable because of the sensational absurdity of an unknown underage student to be involved in an adult video. For the general public at that time, this was a rare scandal for a conservative society like Indonesia. It is still unknown whether she was a victim of sexual violence or if the video was intentionally made without clear motives. The name Salam Pramuka derived from the eponymous name of a firecamp chant from the Indonesian scouting movement, “the Pramuka Greeting”. This moniker came because the person involved was wearing an Indonesian girl scout uniform.
10. Video Ahok di Kep. Seribu Uncut Ver (PF)
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or was famously known as Ahok, is a Christian Chinese-Indonesian politician and former Jakarta governor in 2014–2017. In the public’s eyes, he is known for his frankness and dedication for a responsible public service, a standard that was so high for a highly-corrupt Indonesian government. In 2016, he was involved in a video scandal, depicting him allegedly blasphemed the Quran. He said quote: “Jangan mau dibohongi pakai surat Al-Maidah ayat 51” meaning “Don’t let you be fooled by (-red, the people who use) surah Al-Maidah verse 51”. The verse itself, cited from The Clear Quran translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab, is like this:
O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; some of them are allies of one another. Whoever of you allies himself with them is one of them. God does not guide the wrongdoing people.
The video clip was so sensational and highly-politicized because it was mainly used as a political propaganda by Islamic fundamentalists and the Islamic State sympathizers to degrade his persona, coinciding his competition on Jakarta gubernatorial election in 2017 against a right-wing Muslim Yemeni-Indonesian politician, Anies Baswedan.
This case was later resulted to his imprisonment because of public pressure, even though several humanitarian organizations, law experts, and linguistics researchers claimed the sentence was harmless and a mere critique to Islamist politicians that are using religious text as propaganda and discrimination against minorities, mainly non-Muslims and Chinese-Indonesians. This case caused a butterfly effect to the post-2017 Indonesian politics, leading to the rise of far-right and alt-right political movement in Indonesia and the increasing influence of religious (-red, Islamic) fundamentalism in the democratic, pluralistic, and secular Indonesia.
11. Videotron JAV (PF)
Yet another adult video scandal, this one is famous because a Japanese adult video (JAV) was unintentionally aired on a videotron (LCD billboard) in Wijaya Street, South Jakarta, which is a busy avenue. The perpetrator was later convicted of illegal digital information crime and claimed to be “innocent” because when he was doing his private business, he didn’t realize that the computer was connected to the billboard. The case went viral in 2016 and became a public gossip on social media. An amateur video of the incident could be seen here, taken by an unknown citizen journalist.
12. CD Paddle Pop (PF)
Paddle Pop is a brand name of ice cream owned by Unilever, sold under the company called Wall’s in Indonesia. Paddle Pop was famous in its time because it engaged in a unique consumer-interactive brand strategy by releasing several eponymous animated movies where the main character is voiced by a famous Indonesian singer, Giring Nidji.
The selling point is that the CDs availability was limited and could only be obtained by exchanging collectible ice cream sticks to the supermarkets that are participating in the program or to buy any variant of the ice cream in an amount determined by the Wall’s company, so the catch is there’s a competition to get the available CDs first before the stock ran out. Not only that, the CDs were intentionally unavailable in CD stores. The CDs lost media became well-known because there are little to no on-demand releases published in mainstream services like Netflix, although several pirated low quality copies may be available in illegal sources.
13. “Kami Akan Kembali” (PF)
This is a catchphrase from a defunct Indonesian children television channel, Spacetoon, meaning “we will return”. Usually displayed before an advertorial break. The phrase may be nostalgic and rather ironic because Spacetoon never really “returned” after they sold their frequency rights to NET., a news and entertainment channel, in 2013.
Tier 2: Losing Some Air
14. Archive Dunia Lain TransTV (F)
Dunia Lain (lit. The Other World) was an Indonesian supernatural-survival reality show aired in Trans TV since 2002–2004, later rebooted in Trans 7 (Trans TV’s sister channel), by the name (Masih) Dunia Lain (lit. (Still) the Other World). It was famous because of its originality in the horror TV show segmentation in its time.
The premise of the show is leaving a contestant alone in an alleged haunted place for one night in total darkness. The contestant is equipped only with a headlamp, a candle, and several food rations to survive. Dunia Lain became an archetype of Indonesian horror TV shows and inspired many investigative supernatural shows. The archive of episodes however, never published wholly on the internet, only several well-known clips are uploaded via streaming services like YouTube.
15. Tiap Detik (F)
(lit. Every Second) Is an Indonesian manga created by Renato Reimundo Jr. to cater to Indonesian manga comic fans and to bring atmosphere of Indonesian life, c.q. high-school themes. It is notable for using humble local contexts, making it more relatable for non-niche audiences amidst the hegemony of Japanese pop culture in Indonesia since 1990s.
16. Tangkap Kriminal (F)
(lit. Capture the Criminal) Possibly referring to an old television show aired in ANTV named Tangkap!!! meaning (Capture!!! or Arrest!!!). Tangkap!!! was a comedy reality show depicting the life of a former criminal according to various informants with events reconstructed in a parodied manner. The show is very obscure and forgotten on the surface internet that I even failed to gather more information relevant to the item. Here’s a sample episode that was referred in a Kaskus discussion.
17. Game CD Taro (F)
Taro is a long established Indonesian chips brand with a unique shape resembling a net, as the product is officially referred as Taro Net. It has an equivalent popularity as Doritos is in the US. The name Taro should not be confused with the Japanese taro — the tuber food, as the snack contains no taro. Similar to Paddle Pop, Taro used a branding strategy of giving CD copies of an indie adventure games only available by exchanging certain objects or minimum purchases in supermarkets. The games become obscure because the copies are limited and unavailable in public archive.
18. Rise of Nusantara (F)
Is an Indonesian action game released in 2015, made by Palm Studio. The game follows a story of the main character named Dadan in his goal of defeating Japanese colonization. The game was praised by the public for its local production and the claimed quality akin to Ubisoft’s Far Cry.
19. Iklan Dot Dodo Lulus Sensor (F)
Dodo is a brand name of baby pacifier produced by PT Dodorindo Jaya Abadi, a baby equipment company established since 1997. In 2013, Dodorindo released a television ad of their pacifier, depicting a baby looking at women’s breasts (a double entendre to pacifier) situated in a park during their strolling time. The main idea of this advertisement is that the baby was depicted as cheerful after seeing women’s breast in a stereotypical young mother beauty. The baby is seen crying after seeing a bigger one which is then revealed to be from an “ugly middle-aged woman”. The ad was infamous for being sexist and scandalous because it somehow passed the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, well-known for their conservative airing criteria. The ad could be seen here.
20. Profesor Urla (Rahasia Hidup di Antara Kita) (F)
(lit. Professor Urla: The Secrets of Life Among Us) is a series of educational animated films distributed via CDs by a powdered milk brand, Dancow, owned by Nestle Indonesia. The notability is maybe because of its limited availability and absence of digital archive.
21. Animax Dub Indo (F)
No available information of notability. Possibly of limited archive.
22. Noragami Global TV (F)
Noragami is a Japanese anime adapted from a manga of the same name. Little to be known for its notability. Possibly has something to do with its content and restrictive Indonesian rating, resulting in a short-lived airing.
23. Code Lyoko Dub Indo (F)
Is a French animated series made by Antefilms and Moonscoop from 2003 until 2007. Notable for being enjoyed by Indonesian teenagers during the golden age of Spacetoon. The availability of Indonesian dub maybe limited today, but several episodes access is surely still easy to be found.
24. Huruf N di Yosan (PF)
Yosan is a classic Indonesian chewing gum brand name manufactured by Mustika Manis Utama Corporation that established in 1986. Since its early business, Yosan offers a challenge to collect five candy wrappings with letters inside spelling Y-O-S-A-N, eligible for prizes ranging from toys, T-shirts, to bicycles. The letter N would determine your prize as a description of the prize would be written inside the letter N’s wrapping, as you can see on the image below saying “satu sepeda Yosan” or one Yosan-branded bicycle, complete with the official company stamp and a signature.
However, the last letter N is notoriously hard to find, perhaps intentionally nonexistent to maintain sales according to rumors, so no one ever reported of achieving those rather cheap and novelty prizes. Except, when a man called Dendy Pohan who successfully found the letter N in 2019 and claimed a prize of a blue BMX bicycle with Yosan branding. He later gifted the prize to his child who had previously also asked for a bicycle. During the meeting with Yosan’s delegate, he questioned the employee of this letter N scarcity. The employee only commented that during the span of his job, he only knew that there were only 4 bicycle prizes ever awarded to Yosan consumers. The employee added that Dendy was extremely lucky to get that. This item is notable for its similarity to Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket in Roald Dahl’s children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
25. Berawal Dari Gym (PF)
(lit. “Started from the Gym”) is an Indonesian erotic gay fictional story made circa 2010s via internet blog posts, telling a story of a Balinese man Kadek Adhi aliased as KAMS in his pursuant of working out on a local gym in order to obtain muscular body after being inferior of seeing his Balinese peers’ ripped body, which is logical because Bali is well-known as a beach paradise. The premise is that he was sexually aroused after given an “amino” drug from a man named Bli Gung in his apartment, who he claimed to be beneficial to restore muscular pain after working out. The medicine later revealed to be an “aphrodisiac” and then the two were engaged in a sexual intercourse. The story became viral in 2016 because of its absurdity and general Indonesian dislike towards the LGBT community, finding it to be funny among mostly conservative Indonesian netters.
26. Carita de Angel (PF)
(lit. Face of Angel in Spanish) is a Mexican telenovela aired in Indonesia since 2000s, mostly loved by housewives in the afternoon break during children's school time. The full Indonesian dubbed episodes are limited but several short clips are generally available in internet sources.
27. Edu Games Edisi Indomilk (PF)
Ibid. to number 17. Indomilk is an Indonesian brand name of ultra-high temperature milk manufactured by Indolakto, a subsidiary of Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, an Indonesian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company. Apparently this item might refer to educational games released by the brand although it is unclear what games and the history of it.
28. Inisial-Inisial Artis Open BO (PF)
Literally means the “initials of artists (-red, celebrities) offering escort or prostitution”. BO is an Indonesian neologism derived from the word booking, as to “book” someone. Usually discussed in Indonesian online gossip forums like Detik Forum or Kaskus, anonymous accounts would post several gossips about involvement of, mostly female, celebs in that foul industry, either to be true or a mere fake sensational story.
29. Kochikame Gag Dub Indo (PF)
KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops is a Japanese anime adapted from a manga of the same name. Kochikame is notable for its local context adaptation of Japanese culture to Indonesian counterparts, like including Indonesian regional names and accents to increase familiarity, as if the characters were of Indonesian origin. The Indonesian dubbing remained limited.
30. Flash Game Who Wants to be a Millionaire Indonesia (PF)
Is an Indonesian video game adaptation of the US television show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire using Adobe Flash, notable to be produced by an indie studio, Saxono Production, and distributed via various sources.
31. Original IndoXXI (PF)
IndoXXI was an Indonesian pirated film curation website offering online streaming and download of illegally obtained film copies. No subsequent information regarding to notability, but I guess it has something to do with the original site and archive fate after being shut down in a lawsuit and criminal charges by the Indonesian law enforcement.
32. Subforum BB17 (LC)
BB17 was an Indonesian subforum in Kaskus, equivalent to a Reddit r/. The name BB stands for buka-bukaan 17 or “being open 17”. As the name implies, the subforum contained adult content posts. Known to be a place for brainless Indonesian netters in the 2010s, the subforum gained popularity for exchanging adult content in an open, surface internet forum environment. The subforum was closed after legal and social pressure.
33. Gintama Dub Indosiar (LC)
Nothing of importance, simply the limitation of Indonesian dub of Gintama archive.
34. Original Fscchan (LC)
Fscchan was an Indonesian imageboard site, equivalent to 4chan. This item possibly has something to do with the site’s notoriety for exchanging adult and immoral contents. A search to archive.org led to this imageboard site bearing the Netherlands top-level domain. The original website for Fscchan went defunct after the death of the owner, Fathi Anshory, and several reboots of the site then surfaced on the internet made by the enthusiasts.
35. Pandoev33 (LC)
Is an Indonesian gaming YouTube personality with the real name Pandu Prayogo. He initiated his channel in 2009 and is often compared by the Indonesian public to the famous classic YouTuber, PewDiePie. He retired in 2017 and got his account hacked, making his contents gone from the internet.
Tier 3: Feeling the Cold
36. Innovation Store Infomercial w/ Ulfa Dwiyanti (F)
Innovation Store is a retail franchise owned by DRTV Indonesia, founded in 1983. The store advertising strategy bear resemblance to the stereotypical American infomercial. Mainly selling imported household and kitchen products targeted for middle-class Indonesians, Innovation Store is notable for its very long airing during afternoon breaks when children went home after school, making it the only “entertainment” when cartoon segment ends.
Even though Innovation Store has various memorable product advertisements, Grand Power Juicer was probably the most nostalgic because they hired actual people to demonstrate the product, not a regular short advertisement. The advertisement was starred by Ulfa Dwiyanti and Krisna Mukti. The ad depicts the battle between Ulfa with her Grand Power Juicer and Krisna with his cheap off-brand juicer in the making of a perfect nutritious juice. The ad highlighted and boasted Ulfa’s juicer for its advanced technology to retain nutrition and its reasonable price. The ad has the equivalent popularity to Vince Offer’s Slap Chop.
37. MTV Ampuh (F)
Is an Indonesian music program produced by MTV Indonesia, aired in ANteve (now ANTV) since 1997 and later Global TV in 2002 until its decline in the 2010s. The popularity of this program is due to its position of being the main source of Indonesian teenagers’ pop music reference via television before the internet era and bringing several famous video jockeys (VJ), notably Daniel Mananta.
38. Majalah Hidayah (F)
Hidayah (lit. Guidance) is an Indonesian mystery and religious magazine, adapted from the original Malaysian magazine of the same name, distributed by Variapop Group Malaysia and rose in popularity since the 2000s. Hidayah is notorious for using uncanny and creepy depictions of religious karma in Islamic context of human sins, like rotten corpses, burning skin, etc., even though its main goal is simply to curate Islamic dakwah (propagation). The magazine was popularized by Indonesian meme community using parodies in order to tone down the illustration sadism and to give a less serious description of Islamic theology narrated by Hidayah.
Trigger warning: graphic material
39. Archive Acara Mata Lelaki (F)
Mata Lelaki (lit. Men’s Eyes) is a reality show aired in Trans 7 premising sexual stories from several women claimed as a personal experience. The show was later banned by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission in 2014, citing its indecency towards public morals and women’s dignity.
40. Jelangkung 3 (2007) (F)
No notability information known.
41. Be a Man w/ Andika Gumilang (F)
Be a Man is a 2008–2010 Indonesian TV reality show premising the challenge of transforming transwomen into “real men” using militaristic and highly-biased masculine challenges involving TNI (Indonesian Army) troops in an outdoor environment with harsh activities, such as outbound, survival, and martial arts. There is little to no information about the show’s controversy, possibly has something to do with limited archive.
42. Dufan Defenders (F)
Is a 2012 Indonesian 3D animated film by Ancol Dreamlights, bringing the eponymous mascot of an Indonesian theme park, Dufan, a proboscis monkey, in its adventure of defending endangered Indonesian animals from evil natural resource destroyers. The film was notable for being one of the first 3D animated film wholly produced by an Indonesian studio.
43. Tanda Mata (F)
Tanda Mata (lit. Eye Signs) is a spiritual successor of an Indonesian late night talk show, Empat Mata (lit. Four-Eyed, meaning private conversation), which was previously led by Tukul Arwana. Tanda Mata was aired in 2008 and hosted by Parto and Didin. This short-lived show was intended to temporarily replace Empat Mata after the show was failed to response several notices and legal actions by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission. Tanda Mata was later replaced again by the original reboot named (Bukan) Empat Mata (lit. (Not) Four-Eyed). The show episodes remained limited in availability.
44. Super Deal 2 Milyar (F)
Is an Indonesian quiz show adapted from American the counterpart Let’s Make a Deal. There are no sources mentioning any notability.
45. Dia, Dia, Dia Sempurna (PF)
(lit. She, She, She is Perfect) is an Indonesian coming of age web story made by a Kaskus user under the handle (at)stress.sarap in 2014 on a subforum called SFTH (Stories from the Heart). It is a based-on-true-story romance fic about a male high school student, Deni, situated in Palembang in 2001. The story was so popular because supposedly the story was full of angst matter and ended tragically, thus garnering popularity among teenagers and general netters. The full thread of the web story could be read here.
46. Ensiklopedia Susu Bendera (PF)
Is a compilation of educational encyclopedia books containing illustrations and explanations of basic science and knowledge targeted to children. The books were included in each box of Susu Bendera or Frisian Flag powdered milk box as a prize.
I remember having one explaining the myth of accidentally eating a fruit seed supposedly would grown as trees and a tree trunk would emerge from your mouth, later explained that the myth is false and the seed shall be safely digested inside the stomach.
47. Sexophone (PF)
Sexophone is a midnight adult sexual health, education, and lifestyle television talk show aired on Trans TV, hosted by a celebrity, Chantall Della Concetta and a clinical psychologist and sexologist, Zoya Amirin. Information about this show is very scarce and no reports of when the show was first debuted, most probably in 2012. According to a news report, the show received several notices from the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission for explicit sexual contents. From an article published in the commission’s website, there also found archives of notice for Sexophone violating the broadcasting regulation for woman’s body exploitation. There is a very few archive of this show, you could watch a sample episode here.
48. The Walking Dead Trans TV (PF)
Simply an American series that is rarely aired on Indonesian national TVs.
49. Game Akal Interaktif (PF)
No significant notability. Akal Kreatif is a series of educational children video games produced by akalkreatif.com.
50. Samsung FUN Club (PF)
Samsung FUN Club is a mobile web service to access additional software, media, and features on Samsung feature phone devices before Galaxy Store exists. Apparently, the service was popular at some point in the Indonesian market, even though I don’t recall any of its notability, maybe because its popularity isn’t as significant as Waptrick as I told very much earlier. On earlier feature phones released by Samsung back in 2000s, Samsung FUN Club branding could be seen on the startup or boot screen.
51. Archive On The Spot Thalita Latief (PF)
On The Spot is an Indonesian prime time program that aired on Trans 7 since late 2008. The show was originally hosted live and discussed multiple themes ranging from commentary and travel. At some point it changed the theme to a music show with an occasional news magazine segment. The show also had a quiz segment that invited audiences at home to answer short quizzes via telephone. The show’s famous catchphrase was “satu juta, empel dem dem dem” (meaning, “one million (-red, rupiah), empel dem dem dem however, has no meaning, i.e. a jargon), as shown in an episode below.
Sometime in 2009, the show was transformed into an exclusively news magazine due to high public reception of the previous news magazine segment delivering special lists of curated topics akin to Watchmojo. Thalita Latief was highlighted in this item because she was the main host, along with Ruben Onsu, of the original show’s theme. The original travel and music theme of On The Spot was rather short-lived after the entire show was stripped down into a 100% voiced-over narration. The complete earlier episodes hosted by her and Onsu were little to be found in online archives.
52. FP SM*SH Tuhan Kita Semua (LC)
(lit. SM*SH God of Us All) was a controversial Facebook page made in circa 2010s, posting a bizarre occultism of a briefly popular Indonesian idol boy group called SM*SH (read=smash), equivalent to South Korea’s Super Junior back then. Probably ran by a troll account, the page was documented to be posting several posts revering the band, religious blasphemy, and mockery towards Christianity and Islam, possibly made intentional to clash between the two largest Indonesian major religions.
53. Dendam77Beradik (LC)
(lit. Revenge77Siblings) is an Indonesian gaming community urban legend, specifically in Supercell’s Clash of Clans back in 2015. The account was claimed to be a “haunted” account previously owned by a late user named Angarkhey Rikhi allegedly from Malaysia. The urban legend became famous due to its village map containing glitches and design, impossible if to be made intentionally according to the game’s rule. If one visits the village, it supposedly would made their phone force close the app.
54. C9tk (LC)
Little to no information of notability available. From a simple archive.org search, c9tk.com would direct to an old website containing adult materials. The website was registered in 2008 according to whois.com.
55. 9uyon (LC)
Was a short-lived Indonesian microblogging site intended to share memes and funny images. 9uyon is a pun to the word guyon (Javanese for joking). It was a direct copy to Hong Kong’s 9GAG made earlier in 2008. It even copies the number nine to imitate 9GAG’s identity. The website went popular in 2011, but the site’s fate is unsuccessful as the domain is now inaccessible.
56. na9a (LC)
Ibid. to number 55. Na9a is a pun to the word naga meaning dragon.
57. Deritamahasiswa (LC)
Is comedy novel written by an anonymous author (at)deritamahasiswa. It was published in 2013 by GagasMedia, one of the most prestigious Indonesian publishers. No significant pop culture left by this novel whatsoever and it’s unclear why the novel came into the list and the writer’s original name seemed to be unknown.
Tier 4: The Middleground
58. Behind the Scene Katakan Putus (F)
Katakan Putus is a romance drama reality show depicting three investigative agents: Ricky Komo, one everchanging female guest host, with their cameraman, Fatar. The show’s premise is to track and stalk a client’s boyfriend or girlfriend who are believed to be secretly cheating the client, where mostly the clients are female. The show format is mockumentary that operates a clandestine investigation, in order to gain “realness” for the audiences. Sometimes the show would include exaggerated storytelling and recruit local citizens as an “informant” actor. The show reception was mixed due to its obvious scripted nature, but general audiences agree that the show is watchable and doesn’t care whether the story is real or not. The behind the scene of the show in other hand, is invisible to the public.
59. Limbad Dikubur Hidup-Hidup (F)
Limbad is an Indonesian stage magician specialized in survival magic. In the end of 2011, he performed a nationally-televised stunt of him being buried alive in 2 tons worth of concrete underground for 12 hours until 2012 to greet the new year. The stunt gained a heaping amount of public attention. He came out alive later. The full archive of the live broadcast is unavailable on the surface internet, but there are some amateur videos taken by home audiences and uploaded to YouTube like this one.
I remember watching the whole live report of the stunt, it was rather terrifying for people with claustrophobia.
60. GTA OVJ (F)
Is an illegally pirated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA SA) mod depicting an Indonesian comedy show Opera Van Java (OVJ) performers. Nothing special about the told item. The ISO image file could be downloaded here from archive.org.
61. Extravaganza ABG (F)
Is a sister program of Extravaganza, a Trans TV’s urban adult late night comedy show aired in the 2000s. ABG is an acronym for Anak Baru Gede, meaning “a child who just grew-up”, which is a slang term for young adults, as the show is targeted towards young adults.
62. 24 Hour Quiz (F)
Possibly refers to a British program aired by ITV.
63. Tweet Justin Bieber (F)
The notability information of this item is uncertain. However I suspect that, cited from a news report, this item might refer to an incident that occurred in March 2014 when Justin Bieber posted tweets with caption written in Indonesian, like: “Justin Bieber Cemberut?” (lit. “Is Justin Bieber Sulky?”) with a URL-shortened Bit.ly link and “Senyuman merupakan hal kecil yang dapat membuat hidup ini menjadi lebih mudah, follow (at)NotesCepot sekarang juga” (lit. “Smile is a small thing that would make this life easier, follow (at)NotesCepot right now”).
Indonesian Twitter users and general Bieber fans assumed that Bieber’s account was hacked by an Indonesian, which made the fans furious then surged (at)notescepot account for an alleged illegal account hijacking. The owner of (at)notescepot account said that they did not do such thing. After the incident, Bieber’s management confirmed that they had successfully reinstated the account access.
64. 86 Trans TV (F)
86 or officially Police 86, is an Indonesian comedy show involving police characters portrayed by comedians, telling the humorous side of the Indonesian law enforcement. The show began airing in Trans TV in 2010. Not to be confused with NET.’s reality show 86 of the same name. 86 is an Indonesian equivalent of police radiotelephony code for “roger” in the US.
65. Pernikahan Manohara-Pangeran Kelantan (F)
Manohara Odelia Pinot is an American-Indonesian actress and model, known for her marriage conflict with a Malaysian prince, Tengku Muhammad Fakhry Petra of Kelantan back in 2008. She experienced violence and attempted abduction after her marriage turned sour due to Petra’s abusive behavior. The conflict escalated to the point it involved American and Indonesian embassy in Singapore to retrieve her back to Indonesia with her mother in order to escape Petra’s captivity. The incident gave the Indonesian president, Yudhoyono, attention and subsequently asked for the responsibility of Malaysian government after PM Mahathir’s aversion to the press. She divorced him later and converted to Christianity.
66. Joe Taslim Vitacharm (F)
Joe Taslim, an Indonesian actor, did cameo in an advert of an Indonesian yogurt drink brand, Vitacharm, a product similar to Yoplait or Yakult. Taslim’s appearance in the yogurt ad was rather unusual because he is mostly known for his acting and professional martial arts background.
67. Eir Aoi Dahsyat (F)
Eir Aoi is a Japanese singer. This item refers to the first and last appearance of her in Indonesian national television. Her visitation to Dahsyat was coincided with her attendance at Anime Festival Asia Indonesia in 2013. Dahsyat is an ill-fated Indonesian music program known for their cringey gimmicks towards guests. Aoi’s presence as guest in Dahsyat, was rather shocking at the time. The episode could be seen here.
68. Tupi dan Ping-Ping/Aku Ingin Tahu (F)
Tupi dan Ping Ping is an Indonesian educational children cartoon produced by Rumah Animasi Indonesia, doing business as RAIS Pictures, and Nada Cipta Raya (NCR) Production, which was distributed via CDs back then. The cartoon is about the two main characters, Tupi (from tupai, Indonesian for squirrel) and Ping Ping (from pinguin, Indonesian for penguin), explaining science and natural phenomena. The sample episode could be seen here. On the other hand, Aku Ingin Tahu (I Want to Know) might probably refers to Seri Aku Tahu: Ensiklopedi Anak Muslim (The ‘I Know’ Series: Encyclopedia of Muslim Children), an Indonesian educational children cartoon catered for Muslims children and delivering Islamic teachings, produced by Nada Cipta Raya (NCR) Production. The pilot episode could be seen here.
These two animation works are very obscure and long forgotten, I don’t recall any of them, nor do I know much of their notability.
69. Sunarto Santri Ninja (F)
Sunarto: Santri Ninja is a 2010 Indonesian parody comic book of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto manga. The comic is made by Arif Abinaufal and published by Ufuk Publishing House. The comic tells story about the main character Sunarto, a santri (Islamic boarding school student) in Pesantren Al-Ikhlas situated in a village called Desa Kenongo (parody to Konohagakure village), and his archenemy Oroknyimaru (parody to Orochimaru).
70. Sandiwara Radio Tutur Tinular (F)
Tutur Tinular is a classic Indonesian epic radio play written by S. Tidjab, telling a story about Majapahit Empire’s early foundation. First aired in 1989, the play gained success at that time, broadcast through several regional radio stations. The complete episodes are very obscure.
71. Video Petasan Pemalang (F)
Is a phenomenal internet shock video later spread via peer to peer sharing platform like Bluetooth and infrared back in 2013. The video loosely depicts an explosion accident involving local people in Semingkir, Pemalang Regency, after attempting to light a homemade giant firecracker, a local tradition to celebrate a festive holiday. News reports said a local died by the blast and a man is still alive today with part of his limbs gone and now replaced with prosthetic legs. The video of the man’s fate is available here.
72. Live Persalinan Ashanty (PF)
Ashanty is the wife of an Indonesian singer, Anang Hermansyah. Her controversy arose when her labor progress was televised live nationally, cited by the public as extremely unsolicited and rather annoying.
73. Quiz Parampaa (1, 2, Kita Semua) (PF)
Quiz Parampaa is a series of an Indonesian video game in Adobe Flash platform made by Masova Studio. It was popular in the 2010s because of its striking resemblance to The Impossible Quiz made earlier by a British developer Splapp-Me-Do. Quiz Parampaa is famous for its local contexts.
74. Pimp My Car Indonesia (PF)
Is a 2007 Indonesian adaptation of the American MTV’s reality show Pimp My Ride. The show gained popularity because of its poor short-life, only in one episode, and its host of a later-turned-controversial celebrity, Aldi Taher, for its bizarre attitude in mass media today.
75. Markus Horizon Coli (PF)
Markus Horison is an Indonesian senior footballer holding a position as the keeper of the Indonesian National Football Team in 2007. His obscure controversy arose in the internet over an adult video depicting a person alleged to be him seemingly doing masturbation.
76. Akun Steam Airani Iofifteen (PF)
There is little to no explanation about their case, however Airani Iofifteen is an Indonesian microcelebrity doing business as a Virtual YouTuber (VTuber) and Hololive performer.
77. OVJ OD (PF)
OVJ OD is an acronym for Opera Van Java: Outdoor. Opera Van Java is an Indonesian comedy stage play aired in Trans 7 since the 2010s. OVJ show format is akin to Javanese wayang wong or traditional puppetry that is played by real actors instead of leather puppets (wayang kulit), except the play is comical and casual, compared to traditional wayang wong that is based on classical epic or stories. OVJ: Outdoor, on the other hand, is another format of OVJ, as the name suggests, the play is done outside or in a real set rather than an indoor studio stage. The complete archive of the show is very limited. You can watch a sample episode of the show here.
78. Infantrum (PF)
Indonesian Fanfiction Author Forum of Infantrum is an Indonesian fanfiction sharing forum. The forum held an annual awards event called Indonesian Fanfiction Awards (IFA) which debuted in 2008, gathering best fanfictions from fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own (AO3), and Wattpad for several nomination categories. You can learn about IFA’s history on their official blog site here.
79. Astro Nusantara (PF)
Was a Malaysian satellite television subscription provider operated since 2006 until 2008. Originally airing Premier League in a joint business with a similar Indonesian company, First Media. The provider’s fate was poor due to bad administrative and regulatory compliance.
80. GarudaOS (LC)
Was an open source Indonesian Linux operating system distribution that is intended to reduce national reliance to foreign operating systems like Windows or macOS, and to combat operating system piracy by providing a free alternative. The operating system’s fate is rather unsuccessful as the distribution lacked a sufficient and dedicated community to further develop the software.
81. Animasi Ipo-Chan (LC)
Is an Indonesian moe anime character made by Rouzille Erzabalna to anthropomorphize Internet Positif, an Indonesian internet firewall and restricted content filter service managed under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics. Ipo is an abbreviation for Internet Positif, the namesake, and the diminutive chan is a Japanese honorific used to address a younger person, particularly female.
Although Internet Positif was mainly used to block illegal sites, like online gambling and adult video, the service was notorious at the time for highly obstructive to the surface internet because the blocking system was deemed arbitrary, thus frustrated most of internet users, especially the younger people, who were hindered the access to sites that were unilaterally blocked by the government. Ipo-chan was born as a response and satire to the problem.
Tier 5: The Bottom of the Iceberg
82. Indonesian Harry Potter Roleplay Forums (F)
Is an Indonesian writing and roleplay forum based on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter heptalogy. The community goes by the name IndoHogwarts and previously had their own official website called indohogwarts.co.nr. After the official website went defunct, presumably of discontinuation or closure by the administrators, the community then migrated to several forum hosting sites, currently Tapatalk, an online forum website. They used to be active there, but apparently has since been inactive for awhile.
83. Battle of Yogyakarta (F)
Battle of Yogyakarta is a first-person shooting game, about an army general named Susilo in his battle against robot alien in Yogyakarta Special Region, made by joint developer of Rumah Singgah Studio with Agungsw back in 2014. The game was made using Unity Engine and was doing crowdfunding in IndieGogo, promising to be released for free after fulfilling the resource needed to finish the game development. The game’s crowdfunding site is inaccessible as of today, so does the game’s fate.
84. Video Penampakan Adzan (F)
Azan or athan is an Islamic call of prayer done in five different assigned hours every day. In this case, every television channels in Indonesia are obliged to broadcast azan every magrib time, typically around 5:30–5:50 pm in the afternoon, or when the sun just falls right under the horizon. Azan breaks are commonly displayed with various thematic or template video like Indonesian natural scenery or simply a portrayal of an Islamic ritual like the salah.
In this case, back in 2005, Indonesian public were shocked after realizing that in a brief clip of azan break broadcast by Trans TV, there was an alleged apparition of a malevolent female ghost in Indonesian culture called kuntilanak, similar to Japanese female vengeful ghosts or onryos, i.e. Sadako or generic European white lady ghosts. The apparition however, I believe, was situated in a train station bearing resemblance to the Gambir Station in Central Jakarta, at the highest platform story. The apparition is notorious for its poor documentation that there isn’t any archived video of the azan break other than an amateur video uploaded on YouTube, making the alleged apparition hard to be examined and to be proven its originality.
85. Kuis Mbak Yeyen (F)
Mbak (meaning Miss) Yeyen or in full name Yeyen Lidya, is a midnight television quiz show host that aired in TPI channel back in the 2000s called Bisik-Bisik (lit. Whisper). For context, TPI was used to be an educational channel launched in New Order during Soeharto’s authoritarian dictatorship meant to broadcast children and family oriented program. After his downfall, TPI’s fate as a state-owned television crumbled as the company failed and started to lose money.
To battle this, TPI switched to budget programming and poor quality shows, usually a cheap stage show, quizzes, and soap opera ran by low tier actors only enough to keep their kitchen burning. Mbak Yeyen was famous for hosting her quiz show in an indecent way by wearing a minimum dress that shows her breast shape or cleavage and an occasional sexual puns as gimmicks to attract her largest base, which are male adult audiences.
It’s unclear when was the show first and lastly aired due to TPI’s coincidence of acquisition by an Indonesian media mogul, Hary Tanoesoedibjo who owns MNC Media, which then renamed to MNC TV, and overall TPI’s poor administrative management before being acquired by MNC Media. The relevant officers of the TV show denied giving information and Yeyen didn’t recall her past job very well. The program was notorious for being sexist and degrading women’s dignity and later raised stricter broadcasting regulation of any materials containing private body parts imagery and sexual exploitation.
86. Video Nikahan Syekh Puji (F)
Pujiono Cahyo Widianto or famously known as Syekh Puji, is an Indonesian businessman turned cleric, an Islamic sect leader, and head of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) Miftahul Jannah in Semarang Regency. He was convicted in 2010 of illegal marriage with a minor and an alleged rape case to Lutfiana Ulfa. Puji, aged 43 at that time, married Ulfa who was still only 12 years old in 2008. The marriage was done in nikah al-’urfi (meaning customary marriage) manner according to Islamic sharia law, or in Indonesia is commonly known as nikah siri (secret marriage), that is a marriage done without a registration and eyewitness of a state authority.
The case was phenomenal and polarized the Indonesian public, mostly because it raised the debate about underage marriage discourse from a largely moderate Muslims who are disgusted with the case, against conservative Muslims who mostly had a more lenient view of Puji’s crime. The president of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, Tifatul Sembiring, even commented to the public to not vilify Puji and to consider that quote: “maybe we have a different opinion but after all, Muslims shall not defame an ulema (Islamic clergyman), because if Muslims defame them, then who will be the one who respect them?”, even though it was already clear from both legal and religious perspective that Puji’s crime is unjustifiable. The public’s general sentiment overall were repulsed by Puji’s action.
87. Anak Kecil Nganu Ayam (F)
The sentence is loosely translated as “a child having sex with a chicken”. Not a single clear information about this media, however it probably suggests a video about said activity that is transferred very obscurely on the internet.
88. Kuis Kebangsaan Win-HT (F)
Is a political television quiz sponsored by an Indonesian politician running for president in 2014 General Election, Wiranto and a media mogul, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, hence the nickname Win-HT. The quiz was notorious for being scripted and an obvious direct campaign for Wiranto’s candidacy as it ran occasionally on Tanoe’s TV channels, especially RCTI. Even though it is somehow weird and unethical to arrange a quiz show for a sake of politics, the quiz show, however, was said to be okay as it didn’t break Indonesian political campaign law and broadcasting regulation, official claimed.
98. The Next Mentalist Final (F)
The Next Mentalist is a 2014 Indonesian talent show led by a famous mentalist magician, Deddy Corbuzier. The show was highly appraised by the public due to its high quality production and unscripted nature, often compared to similar Western shows like the Got Talent franchise. The show ended in a controversy after the defeat of a candidate with the highest public support, Riana Antoinette or her stage name The Sacred Riana, a bizarre-illusionist magician, to a cardist and illusionist magician, Aditya Dirgahayu, or his stage name Russell Rich. Most audiences agreed that Riana deserved to be the winner because of her unique magic talent and creepy stage persona. She is still doing magic and recently won Asia’s Got Talent season 2 in 2017. The show clips are still available in the internet.
99. Kuis F1 Anita Hara (F)
Ibid. to number 85. Kuis F1 is a midnight quiz show aired on Global TV circa 2009 and hosted by Anita Hara. The quiz bore a resemblance to Kuis Mbak Yeyen that uses sexual double entendres to attract audiences.
100. Tawa Sutra Tidak Lulus Sensor (F)
Tawa Sutra (lit. Silky Laugh; a wordplay to the book Kamasutra, a Hindu literature containing sexual and eroticism teachings) is a late night Indonesian comedy show targeted to adults, aired in ANTV since 2006–2012. The show was controversial in its time to include sexual references as puns and somehow passed the censorship regulations.
101. Doxxing Luthfi Big Brother (F)
Big Brother Indonesia is an adaptation of the American reality game show of the same name. The show rose in popularity because of a crime committed by a contestant, Luthfie aka Boris Eka Putra Simbolon, a fraudster and con artist. He was arrested during the live airing of the show in 2011, as law enforcers entered the studio. The public reaction was mixed. Some said it was a pure script added as a gimmick to raise Trans TV’s rating during their crippling popularity in the Indonesian TV show industry back in the early 2010s. The head production denied any of the allegations, stating that the event is real, and the contestant was disqualified after the incident.
102. Kanibal Sumanto (Film 2004) (PF)
Sumanto, born in 1972, is a citizen from Pelumutan, Purbalingga Regency. He was famous for being the first, if not firstly documented, modern cannibal of Indonesia. He committed body snatching crime back in 2003, said to be used as a black magic ritual token to gain wealth, and consumed the victim’s corpses to absorb the power. Aside from supernatural motive, he cannibalized people because he experienced poverty and unable to obtain food for sustenance. He was imprisoned for 5 years but released earlier in 2006 for good behavior and his disturbed mental health.
Sumanto’s life story was rather saddening because he was born from a family who suffered financial crisis during his middle school that resulted in him leaving formal education early. In his adult life, he married twice and ended in divorces after he committed several domestic violence. His case was famous and raised the debate of poverty, poor education in rural Indonesia, and moral discourse over cannibalism. His case was adapted into a 2004 horror slasher film with an eponymous title, Kanibal-Sumanto.
103. Ben 7 (PF)
Ben 7 is an Indonesian soap opera produced by Rapi Films in 2009. The show was mixed-reviewed as it was a direct plagiarism to Cartoon Network’s animated series, Ben 10. The show aired in TPI and ran by low tier actors with little budget as the editing and props were poorly designed.
104. SCTV Misteri Series (PF)
No significant information. Possibly about a mystery show aired on SCTV back in 2000s.
105. Bang One TVOne (PF)
Bang One (Bro/Brother One, in English) is the mascot of tvOne, an Indonesian news channel. It was famous as the narrator of tvOne’s short animated caricatures of Indonesian politician and famous figures shown during advertisement breaks, delivering critics and satirical contents, akin to Washington Post’s newspaper caricature.
106. Ramadhan Mat Jo (PF)
Is a 2012 Indonesian animated show aired in Kompas TV, catering Muslim children during Ramadan month, delivering religious teachings. The show’s fate is unknown.
107. Terdampar Full Series (PF)
(lit. Stranded) is a 2010 Indosiar survival drama series about estranged airplane passengers after crashing to an uninhabited island. The show’s cultural footprint was little but the public seemed to recollect the series rather well. Unfortunately, the show’s archive is nowhere to be found.
108. The Changcuters vs The Upstairs (PF)
The Changcuters (a play to the word cangcut or men’s brief) is an Indonesian rock band formed in 2004, led by a vocalist, Tria Ramadhani. The Changcuters is known for their edgy and comical musicality. On the other hand, The Upstairs is a pop rock band formed earlier in 2001, led by Jimi Multhazam. There is little information about this item’s significance. Some sources accounted for their performance in 2007 on Indosiar. Possibly has something to do with their fans’ rivalry or a simply rare television coincidence.
109. Upin Ipin Dunia Anaq (LC)
Upin Upin is a Malaysian animated children show made by Les Copaque studio. The show is highly loved by the Indonesian public because of its relevancy to Southeast Asian culture. Later in 2017, there was an anonymous YouTube account, Dunia Anaq, possibly an Indonesian made, publishing several parodies of the show using bizarre and sexual editing, notably showing the deuteragonist character, Kak Ros, to be pregnant. The channel was later removed as both Indonesian and Malaysian parents were furious for its dangerous content.
110. Blog Mualaf Alhamdulilah (LC)
Was an Indonesian blog site made back in 2010s with the URL mualaf_alhamdulillah.blogspot.com. Mualaf is an Islamic term meaning a convert, and alhamdulillah means “praise be to God”. The site was notorious for sharing clickbait content about pseudo-historical Islamic narratives and provocative materials, mainly insulting Christianity and Judaism. Several posts mention exaggerated Islamic history and false claims in order to attract new converts. The site’s existence is related to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia since 1998.
111. /ind/ (LC)
No information available.
112. Sosmed salingsapa(dot)com (LC)
Salingsapa was a short-lived Indonesian social media platform, designed as a direct competitor to Facebook for the Indonesian market, as the site’s interface bore a striking resemblance to Facebook. It is made by Muhammad Yahya Harlan, an Indonesian middle school student. The site was mainly targeting devout Muslim niche market, highlighting several religious features such as digital Quran, Islamic sermon videos, and nasheed music. It was praised by the former Minister of Communication and Informatics from a Islamic fundamentalist party, Tifatul Sembiring, and some public cited it as creative and a proudly Indonesian-made.
Even though the site garnered a positive reception for its locally made claim, the site was later proven by several IT experts for using a foreign made content management system (CMS) technology. According to a news report, Yan Harlan, Yahya Harlan’s father and the co-creator of Salingsapa, admitted that the site’s backbone was powered by a paid CMS service called JCow. The educated public and IT experts argued that the claim is too bold and Harlan as the inventor is responsible for a possible copyright issue. Harlan responded to the media that JCow’s policy stated that paid users is not obligated to show JCow attribution as a part of the license benefit. He concluded with a statement that Yahya Harlan is just a child who still needs the support and is disheartened by the public insults and allegations.
113. Pocong 1 (2006)
Is an Indonesian horror film directed by Rudi Soedjarwo. The film depicts the main antagonist, pocong, an Indonesian ghost with the appearance of a shrouded zombie in white cloth, akin to how Muslims are buried religiously. The film was highly anticipated at that time but went ill-fated because it mentioned several references to an Indonesian political tragedy, the May 1998 riot. Considering 2006 was the early years of Reform era after the horrific events following the end of Soeharto’s authoritarian regime resulting in violence to civilians, especially ethnic and religious minorities, any mention of May 1998 riot in public media was considered taboo, if not illegal at that time. The film was notable as it was promoted by an American horror films on-demand provider, Shudder.
Tier 6: Let There Be (No) Light
114. Video Klip Gaby Tinggal Kenangan (F)
“Tinggal Kenangan” (lit. “Only Memories Left”) originally “Jauh” (lit. “Afar”) is a ballad song written by Caramel, an Indonesian band formed in 2005. In 2006, they released the song and became popular in Makassar. Later in 2008, a record company named Trinity Optima Production re-released the song and renamed it “Jauh (Tinggal Kenangan)”. In that same year, the song became a huge hit in Jakarta, then nationwide, after an unofficial acoustic version published by an unknown singer became popular under the pseudonym of Gaby.
Rumors said that the song is cursed because it is written by Gaby as a longing music after the death of her boyfriend who died in an accident. Gaby then committed suicide by hanging due to mental breakdown. Most people are refrained from singing and playing the song, because supposedly Gaby would come and did something bad to the singer. The urban legend became viral and haunted the Indonesian public for several months. It inspired many similar tales, even discussed in news outlets and infotainment programs. The urban legend later adapted into a film, Gaby dan Lagunya (2010) (lit. Gaby and Her Song). The rumor was later debunked as the singer of the acoustic version “Jauh” was revealed to be Andi Besse or Abe, a Makassaran colleague of Pay, the guitarist of Caramel.
115. Game Edukasi Binus (F)
No significant information available. For information, Binus or Bina Nusantara University is a prestigious Indonesian private university. Possibly has something to do with an educational game made by Binus.
116. The Master (F)
Is a 2009 Indonesian magic talent show aired in RCTI, hosted by Deddy Corbuzier and Romy Rafael, Indonesian celebrity magicians. The show was rather mixed-reviewed by the public, some appraising the uniqueness, and some highlighting its use of gimmicks.
117. Jupe Depe Bertengkar (F)
Is an incident involving two Indonesia celebrities, the late Julia Perez nee. Yuli Rahmawati or her stage name Jupe, and Dewi ‘Perssik’ Murya Agung or her stage name Depe. The incident occurred in 2010 during the filming of Arwah Goyang Karawang (2011) (The Spirit of Karawang Dance), a horror film. The two were originally quarreled in a scripted scenario, later becoming a real violent fight. According to a news report, the incident was initiated by Depe who bodyshamed Jupe. The video became sensational on the internet, raising questions about whether the act was a publicity stunt or real. The recording of the incident could be seen here.
118. Dominic Bryan (F)
Is an Indonesian memory magician who rose in popularity in 2014, known for his Guinness world record for memorizing 76 rows of numbers in 60 seconds.
119. Jupe Mandi Kembang (F)
Is an event involving the late Julia Perez in 2013 doing ruwatan or traditional Javanese ritual of cleansing by bathing inside a pool full of flowers. The event is told to be using 25 kilograms of roses and was done as a preparation before her marriage with her now-ex-husband, Gaston Castano, a retired Argentinian footballer.
120. Indonesia Raya Versi Propaganda Jepang (F)
Is an Indonesian national anthem rendition made by Nippon Eigasha, the Japanese State Film Production Agency in the Japanese-occupied Indonesia. It was made in the year Kouki 2604, Showa era, or 1945 CE. The rendition is notorious for depicting propaganda of Indonesian sympathy to the Japanese and the creation of Great East Asia colony, citing several pledges like supporting the Asia-Pacific War with Dai Nippon until death. The video of the song rendition could be seen here.
121. Thread Kaskus tahun 2008 sebelum DDoS (PF)
Is a cyber warfare incident in 2008 targeting the largest Indonesian forum site, Kaskus, by a hacking community named YogyaFree using Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The attack is cited to be started from a grudge after an unknown Kaskus user defaced the community’s website. YogyaFree responded by launching a DDoS attack on Kaskus as a retaliation. The attack was so severe that Kaskus owner had to literally pull the plug and disabled the entire Kaskus server, making the site gone from the internet domain name system (DNS) indexing for a while.
After several agreements and reconciliation, the community promised to stop the attack as the Kaskus server was transferred into a new, safer data center in Jakarta Cyber Building. However, because of the attack, the entire site activity in 2008 was corrupted and impossible to be recovered. A quick search on archive.org regarding to Kaskus archived website in 2008 shows an almost blank chart, indicating only little contents visible on the surface net. It is become a question on what posts and lost medias were gone inside the petabytes of the 2008 corrupted data.
122. Romy Rafael Hipnotis 12.000 Orang (PF)
Is an event conducted by Romy Rafael, a hypnotist magician, in 2010 involving 12.000 people in Jakarta Fair Hall A, Expo Kemayoran, Central Jakarta as a MURI record breaking attempt. The hypnotism attempt was claimed to be successful.
123. Film Panas Era Meriam Bellina (PF)
Merriam Bellina is a Dutch-Sundanese Indonesian actress notable for her acting as antagonist characters in films and series. In New Order, where religious institutions were rather lenient, she is famous for starring numerous films containing erotic scenes, making her known as quote: “The Sex Bomb of Indonesia”. She achieved several prestigious accolades, mainly Citra Awards and Vidia Awards.
124. Einstein Aja Belum Tentu Tahu (PF)
(lit. Even Einstein Might Not Know) is an animated educational children series produced by Mrico Animation Studio, a small, home-scale studio based in Ciputat, South Tangerang. The series is distributed by Emperor Edutainment, a digital media distribution company based in West Jakarta.
According to the studio’s now-defunct blog site, the studio was established on July 13, 1999. Prior to the Even Einstein Might Not Know project, they made several animation series, namely Belajar Bersama Mrico (Learn Together with Mrico) and occasionally accepted animation outsourcing jobs from Japanese studios for anime like Pokemon and Doraemon. The studio founders, Andi Rusmana, Johnny Rinaldi, Adji Sunaryo, and Sukaji also previously worked for Marsa Indah Juwita, a larger animation studio based in Bali that was famous for producing Japanese anime from in-between artists, which are junior animators who hand-draw “tween” frames to make sure the animation’s end product looks smooth and seamless, before stitched together with the key frames drawn by foreign senior animators.
The series discussed several insights about basic science for children. The name of the characters is based on Indonesian spices, such as Mrico from merica (Javanese for pepper), Tumbar from ketumbar (coriander), Miri from kemiri (candlenut), Kunir from kunir (Javanese for turmeric), and Kencur from kencur (galangal) It is unclear when the animation first debuted as the pilot episode of the series is unavailable on the internet. You can watch the first episode of the second volume here.
125. Indonesian Wapsite Forum Tahun 2000an (PF)
No significant information available. This item probably refers to Indonesian WAP forum sites in the 2000s. WAP itself is an acronym for wireless application protocol, an archaic technical standard created in 1999 to access the internet on mobile platforms with limited technological capabilities. Presumably, during the infancy of the internet, some Indonesian forum sites were created when WAP was still flourished before being replaced by modern standards like HTML5 and the similar. Those forums may contain history of the early days of Indonesian internet. As currently WAP is deemed obsolete when the internet infrastructure experiences advancements, the legacy of those forums is unknown.
I am not much of a forum person, but the memory of WAP internet era back in the 2000s still resonated with me because internet accessibility was very scarce in Indonesia back then. Mobile devices was one of the few accessible media to access the internet as it was cheaper compared to a full-fledged home personal computer (PC). So, it is unfortunate if the corresponding item was gone from the internet archive.
126. Yahoo Messenger Audibles Bahasa Indonesia (PF)
Was a feature introduced by Yahoo Messenger to send audible emojis with Indonesian voices.
127. Sukatoro (LC)
Was a Japanese obscure shock-site containing scat (hence the name sukato) fetish or coprophilia. The website was used by young internet users back then as a shock prank.
128. Yahoo! Koprol (LC)
Was an Indonesian social media platform, originally Koprol, made in 2008 by Skyeight Indonesia. In 2010, Koprol was acquired by Yahoo, Inc. It was famous for incorporating unique location-based features at the time, like geotagging and check-in before the ill-fated Path even made. The site is no longer exist and inaccessible as for today.
129. Batch Tukang Bubur Naik Haji 31 TB (LC)
Tukang Bubur Naik Haji (lit. A Porridge Vendor Going Hajj) is an Indonesian television drama series, originally telling stories of Sulam, a poor, humble rice porridge seller in his pursuit to go to Mecca for an expensive, Islamic holy pilgrimage. His competitor antagonists, Haji Muhidin and Hajah Maemunah, bearing the title Haji and Hajah, indicating their past hajj experience, were always sulky for Sulam’s pious personality and successful business. Although only ran in 1 season, the series was notorious for being “overmilked” as it reached 2185 episodes from 2012–2017, making the original story line deviated and left a ridiculous amount of plot holes. Rumor said that if all episodes are to be combined in a storage drive, it would take about 31 terabytes worth of data so that it’s impossible to be pirated. It is probably the Indonesian equivalent of the very-long-episode American series, Grey’s Anatomy.
131. Kangkung Hedi Yunus (LC)
Is a humorous internet gossip involving Hedi Suleiman Yunus, an Indonesian actor and singer popular in the 90s. He is the founder and vocalist of a classic Indonesian band, Kahitna, established in 1983. The rumor rotates around the story of Yunus being in a gay relationship with Yana Yulio, a singer from Elfa’s Singer band. At some point, they were engaged in a homosexual intercourse, only for Yulio to found out that Yunus wasn’t prepared so well that a trace of cah kangkung or Chinese stir-fried water spinach was still stuck inside his orifice, possibly of a poor body care before sexual intercourse. The rumor said that Yulio dumped Yunus after the incident. The historical account was rather dubious, or else faked, because there were no official statements from both parties (obviously). Possibly a sensational internet story from a gossip forum.
132. Identitas Asli Lintang Laskar Pelangi (LC)
Laskar Pelangi (2005) or The Rainbow Troops is an Indonesian novel written by Andrea Hirata, adapted to a box office film in 2008 of the same name. Telling stories about the protagonist, Lintang, and his friends in the search for proper formal education in Belitung Island, a disadvantaged and remote village. The novel discussed several criticisms and facts about poor Indonesian government capability to make a fair and accessible education to impoverished Indonesian citizens. Hirata claimed the story to be based on true story, although Lintang’s existence may be fictional. Possibly, Lintang is a covert for Hirata himself according to his own imagination.
Tier 7: Seeing the Stars
133. Live Pemakaman Soeharto (F)
Soeharto, the second Indonesian president, died on January 27, 2008 due to complications and old age. He was one of the most controversial Indonesian politicians for his authoritarian dictatorship . He was buried in a tomb complex called Astana Giribangun. The Indonesian government gave him a pretty comprehensive state funeral which are televised live nationally, despite his legacy of atrocities and political turmoil after his reign. Some recordings of the event are still available, but complete versions from the government and television may be limited.
134. Panji Petualang Digigit Komodo (F)
Panji Petualang is an Indonesian actor and animal trainer. He is famous for hosting several outdoor themed television reality shows, mostly involving survival and animal care, akin to Australia’s Steve Irwin. In 2017, there was a rumor about him being dead after bitten by a komodo dragon in Komodo Island, East Nusa Tenggara. The rumor was later clarified as a hoax after his return in the television industry several years later.
135. Eri Irianto Kecelakaan (F)
Eri Irianto was an Indonesian football player from Persebaya football club in Surabaya. During a match of Persebaya vs PSIM at Gelora 10 November Stadium in Surabaya, he suffered a trauma from bodily impact with a Gabonese PSIM player, Samson Noujine Kinga, on April 3, 2000. He lost consciousness and was sent to Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya. He died later due to a heart attack. The video of his accident is unavailable.
136. Shafou(dot)net (F)
Was a Chinese shock-site that was popular in Indonesia in 2012. The site was usually accessed as prank by school students during recess with their friends. The site only displayed a stock picture of a possessed Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist (1973) with a high-pitched woman scream played in the background.
137. Breaking News Bom Natal 2000 (F)
On December 24, 2000, right during Christmas eve, Indonesia experienced several planned terrorist attack, claimed responsible by Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah. The attack was so meticulously planned that multiple cities were targeted outside police detection, mainly Jakarta, Medan, Bandung, etc. Many news outlets broadcast the live stream of the event that killed 18 and injured 118 people. The event was coinciding with the infiltration of Islamic global terrorism network in late 1980s Indonesia, later become worse since the Reform era in 1998. That bloody event was so disturbing that most recordings are censored in the internet.
138. Pemakaman Tien Soeharto 26 Jam (PF)
Tien Soeharto nee. Siti Hartinah was the second Indonesian First Lady and the wife of Soeharto. She was famous for being a mentor for Soeharto, leading a public belief that all of Soeharto’s policies could be traced back as Tien’s initiatives, notably the creation of TMII theme park. On April 28, 1996, she died of a heart attack in Gatot Subroto Military Hospital. She received a state funeral that in most accounts said done approximately for 26 hours from April 28, 05.10 am to April 29, 10.00. She was buried in Astana Giribangun tomb. Her funeral documentations in that full hours are very obscure.
139. Mbah Surip Jatuh Saat Live (PF)
Is an incident involving Urip Achmad Rijanto, or his stage name Mbah Surip, an Indonesian reggae-pop-campursari singer. After his stage performance in Yogyakarta at a Sunday night, he fainted for hours, due to exhaustion and excessive schedules.
140. Kemben Melorot (LC)
(lit. loose kemben, a traditional Javanese women’s uppergarment) is an incident involving Taffana Dewi and Tessy. During their usual stage performance in Ketawa Spesial Ala Trans TV aired live in 2005, her kemben was loosened because Tessy accidentally bumped her, making her whole cleavage and breast became visible during the live airing. The incident became viral among nasty Indonesian netters and the clips were shared on the internet obscurely. The video later resurfaced in 2020.
141. Killerjo(dot)net (LC)
Ibid. to number 136. Killerjo.net is a Korean shock site made in 2009 containing the famous prank game Scary Maze with a jump scare of Regan MacNeil photo from The Exorcist (1973) with a loud woman screaming sound.
142. Tabloid Obor Rakyat 2014 (LC)
Obor Rakyat (lit. People’s Torch) is a political hoax tabloid published in 2014, coinciding with the 2014 General Election. It was accounted that the tabloid released its first edition titled “Capres Boneka” (lit. “The Puppet Presidential Candidate”), hinting on Joko Widodo’s oppositions framing of him as a mere Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s political puppet led by Megawati Soekarnoputri, in contrast to Prabowo Subianto’s position as the Head of Great Indonesia Movement Party who was deemed as a more independent and free politician according to Widodo’s oppositions. The second edition published subsequently and bearing the title “1001 Topeng Jokowi” (lit. “1001 Masks of Jokowi”).
The tabloid was notorious for obviously making false journalism and spreading hoaxes of Joko Widodo to the public, mainly targeting conservative Muslims, anti-Chinese/anti-non-Muslims, and right-wing voters in order to delegitimize his presidency and shaming his persona. The people who ran the tabloid later faced legal action and imprisoned for defamation crimes.
143. Thread Pembuat Hoax di /n/irmakna Fscchan (LC)
(lit. thread of a hoax maker in /n/irmakna Fscchan) /r/nirmakna (lit. meaningless) was a subforum of a defunct Indonesian imageboard site Fscchan. There is no significant information about this item but according to several discussions in Reddit and Fscchan’s subforum in Endchan, this item might refer to an incident occurred in the original Fscchan website where an anonymous user posted several posts and images containing nudity of a well-known Chinese-Indonesian Twitter personality, Aurelia V with the handle (at)senjatanuklir. The incident was controversial as Aurelia confronted the late Fscchan owner and thus made the owner scrapped the whole website after a possible legal dispute.
144. Rekaman Audisi VTuber Indonesia (LC)
(lit. recordings of Indonesian VTuber audition) Little to no information available, possibly has something to do with archive limitation.
145. Video Furidacchi (LC)
Furidacchi is an Indonesian cosplayer, from Garut, West Java. She is known for her niche controversy of an alleged adultery, sextape scandal, and affair after a man named Ade Ridwan, whom he said to be her fiancée, published several Facebook posts claiming she done the said activity in Ennichisai, a Japanese cultural festival in Blok M, South Jakarta. The video was obscurely viral among nasty Indonesian japanophile community on the internet.
146. Parto Nembakin Pistol (LC)
Is an incident involving Eddy Soepono, or his stage name Parto Patrio, an Indonesian comedian, when he fired a gunshot from a Belgian FN Five-seven pistol to the sky, after exiting Planet Hollywood Cafe in Gatot Subroto Avenue, Central Jakarta, on August 21, 2004 to attend the birthday party of Eko Patrio’s child, a fellow celebrity. According to a news report, the incident was ignited after he was supposedly furious and annoyed for being chased by the press whom asking him the information regarding to his second marriage to another woman and his long absence of visiting his first wife. He was later arrested by the Setiabudi Police Department and had his pistol seized. The recording was used to be long gone on the internet, but later resurfaced recently, although the original unedited press version is unavailable. You can see the news report clip here.
147. Yahya Zaini-Maria Eva (LC)
Yahya Zaini is an Indonesian member of parliament from a right-wing nationalist party, Golongan Karya. He was infamous for being involved in a sextape scandal with Maria Eva, a dangdut singer, back in 2006. It was controversial because Zaini was already married and Eva was found to be pregnant after their affair.
148. SBY Galer (LC)
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or SBY, is the sixth Indonesian president who held the office for ten years. Galer is a slang term abbreviation from garuk peler loosely translated as “scratching an itchy penis”. It was reported that a photo of him doing said activity after seemingly just exiting a mosque after prayer, surfaced on the internet with little to no context.
149. Al-Lam’ah Al-Nuraniyyah (LC)
Al-Lam’ah Al-Nuraniyyah is a book written by a Sundanese-Muslim scholar, Sheikh Musthafa bin Uthman Al-Qaruthi Al-Jawi, shortly Sheikh Musthafa of Garut. The book contains Arabic grammar teachings, the nahw or syntax and sarf or morphology, notable for its commentary to Sheikh Nawawi of Banten’s Al-Syadzrah Al-Jummaniyyah. He was obscurely known for his contribution of Islamic propagation in preindependent Indonesia and his close relation to Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar responsible for Aceh Sultanate’s downfall from his well-designed divide and conquer tactics.
A historical account written by A. Ginanjar Sya’ban, a researcher of Islamic literature from the Graduate School of Nahdlatul Ulama University of Surabaya, said that his original identity was possibly Haji Hasan Mustapa, a Sundanese Sufi from Garut whom also a student of Sheikh Muhammad of Garut, together known for writing several Arabic and Islamic codices. Reportedly, Mustapa published several books in Cairo, during his teachings in Mecca, later Egypt. Its existence was confirmed by Hurgronje who recorded his influence of Islamic gospel in his 1885 historical notes about Dutch East Indian people living in Mecca, as a prominent Sundanese-Muslim scholar within Nusantara-Mecca intellectual network; R.A. Kern, a translator of his books to Dutch language; and Aboe Bakar Djajaningrat, a Sundanese of Pandeglang origin who worked in the Dutch Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who knows Mustapa well. All of these three people agreed that Mustapa was living a productive life in Mecca by writing many books in Cairo, Egypt.
When Ajip Rosidi, a Sundanese litterateur, who wrote his biography and collected some of his works, went to Leiden, the Netherlands, he successfully found a bunch documentation about his works ranging from manuscripts, archives, and texts. But, when he visited Cairo, to much of his surprise, no works related to Mustapa ever existed, a huge contrast to acknowledgments told by those Dutch East Indian figures who previously mentioned Mustapa’s work in the past. The case became a history of a lost Islamic knowledge written by a preindependent Indonesia scholar and made the whole Sundanese people riddled over the alleged “lost codexes” and raised a question about Mustapa’s life in a complete detail. The copy of his books are very obscure, if not nonexistent on the internet.
150. Thread Catatan Harian Seorang Pedofil (LC)
(lit. The Diary of a Pedophile) is a mature, violent, disturbing, and triggering, extremely obscure-niche-fictional story made by an anonymous Kaskus user back in 2009 under the handle of poland_first. The fictions were sent in seven consecutive posts thread, telling stories of a middle-aged man, after dropped out from his university for failing grades and bad relationship with his parents due to poor financial management. He worked as a part-time clown in children's birthdays. In general, the writer conveyed several scenes mentioning abduction, assault, rape, and murder of a child after kidnapping someone from their birthday party.
I would stop the explanation here and leave an archived page from archive.org instead because it is hidden from the surface internet, as the item was rather very disgusting, inhumane, and insanely written that no normal human being would ever have any single thought about that. For God sake.
Tier 8: Drowned into the Abyss
151. Bukti Fisik Radiogram Tragedi Ninja Banyuwangi 1998 (PF)
The Banyuwangi ninja tragedy, or officially known as the 1998 Banyuwangi massacre, was a phenomenon of civil unrest and mass hysteria in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java. As a context, Banyuwangi was (although it may still be) a region in Java with a significant amount of tribal belief and syncretic religion adherents. In the local perspective, Banyuwangi is known as the only region in Java that has a few people who still practices shamanism and black magic, a huge contrast to majority of Javanese people that were islamized, thus giving a sense of disconnect and wary to overall Indonesians that are adhering to institutionalized and formally-recognized religions (back in Soeharto regime). It is recorded that the killings began in early February 1998 when shamans, syncretism adherents, and other groups like clerics, ustads (Islamic teachers), santris (Islamic boarding school students), Osing people, commune chiefs, and suwuks (Javanese traditional healer) were found dead.
On February 6, 1998, the regent of Banyuwangi, H. T. Purnomo Sidik dispatched a radiogram to top-down officials of Banyuwangi government, to list and gather data of all locals whom allegedly practice shamanism and have a supernatural ability in order to ensure their security and protection towards future persecution. He later dispatched a second radiogram in September. To the public surprise, the killings were getting worse when more radiograms were dispatched as more people were found dead by “ninjas”. It is speculated that the listing was designed by the central Indonesian government to eradicate people with opposing political stance. Sidik was later removed from his office due to public disapproval.
The “ninja” etymology is derived from locals’ testimony who saw people with black attire bearing arms and a walkie-talkie. They seem to have a high dexterity and speed. They killed their victims in such a quick way in their homes brutally, hence the name ninja. The radiogram’s physical document was nowhere to be found until now.
The tragedy I would say was definitely not an organic event as the pattern was apparent, given the context of New Order politics were experiencing a severe political instability. It is suspicious if the killings of grassroot people, religious minorities, and clerical figures like this, which Soeharto believed to be “groups with potential subversive behavior”, were intentional.
152. CCTV Bom Kuningan 2004 (PF)
On September 9, 2004, the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, located in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was targeted by a car suicide bombing by Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian transnational Islamic fundamentalist militia with a direct alliance to Al-Qaeda. The tragedy killed 9 people including the bomber and wounded more than 150. The event also caused a severe destruction to the site and the surrounding buildings. After a quick search, a short clip of said event is available on the surface internet, although bearing poor visual details, it’s clear that the damage and casualty resulted by the bombing was rather disturbing and barbaric. However, it is believed that there may be other video evidence removed, or else lost, from the public, given the sheer trauma.
153. Siaran TVRI di Bawah Tahun 1972 (PF)
Televisi Republik Indonesia or TVRI is an Indonesian state-owned public television channel. The channel was established on August 24, 1962 as a part of the government plan to broadcast the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta.
For context, Indonesia experienced a severe political turmoil back in 1965, coinciding with the Cold War and American intervention against the spread of communism. In that same year, Soekarno, the first Indonesian president, was ousted from his office after Soeharto’s coup. It is unclear how many TVRI broadcasting materials and archives were in its first ten years of operation as the existence may be very limited, lost, or otherwise confidential, due to the conflicting political interests of Soekarno and Soeharto’s back in the day. Briefly later in 1974, TVRI was controlled tightly during the New Order era with it being included as a division in Departemen Penerangan (Department of Information), a state-controlled ministry who was the sole national information outlet. Since then, TVRI monopolized the Indonesian television network until 1989.
154. Loetoeng Kasaroeng (1926) (PF)
Loetoeng Kasaroeng is the first “Indonesian” (Dutch East Indian) film produced by Java Film and directed by L. Heuveldorp. It is released on December 31, 1926. The story was based on a Sundanese folklore about lutung, a Southeast Asian black monkey. Lutung kasarung (lit. lost monkey) is said to be an incarnation of Batara Guruminda Kahyangan who was cursed for his deviance to Sundanese mother goddess, Batari Sunan Ambu.
The main characters in the film are Purbasari, the protagonist, and Purbararang, both of them are sisters. Purbasari fell in love with a lutung called Guru Minang, with so much mock from her sister who was dating a more good looking man, Indrajaya. Purbasari later learned that Guru Minang is actually a god with an exceeding qualities than Indrajaya. This incident sparked jealousy from Purbararang which resulted in her demise. The story in Western mindset may have a similarity to Villeneuve’s Beauty and the Beast combined with Cinderella’s sense of sisterly competition. The film is considered lost as there were no archives ever in existence.
155. Piringan Hitam Rekaman Asli Indonesia Raya (LC)
Is the first, original master recording of the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya (lit. Great Indonesia) composed by Wage Rudolf Soepratman, an Indonesian musician. It was recorded in 1927 on a vinyl disc by the help of Yo Kim Tjan, Rudolf’s close friend who was also in his same orchestra group. The recording was produced by Populair Orchestra and distributed by Tjan’s production company, N.V. Populair.
It was commissioned personally by Soepratman to be debuted on the First Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) in 1928, which was one of the earliest Indonesian nationalist movement congresses. The original recording was released in two versions. The first one in solo was sung by Soepratman and accompanied by his violin performance. The second one was played in keroncong music orchestra style, intended to sound more popular to the Indonesian people back then, hoping that it would become memorable in the pursuit of it to be the official national anthem if Indonesia successfully achieved its independence. The recording copies were seized by the Dutch government, fearing the rise of the Indonesian nationalist movement. The master recording vinyls however, were safely maintained by Tjan until 1957.
As an intermezzo, Tjan’s recording was not the only one of the first recordings of Indonesia Raya during the initial years of Indonesian independence. Slightly moving to another time in 1950, Indonesian government requested the Netherlands to arrange another Indonesia Raya rendition after the 1949 Round Table Conference, the official Dutch recognition of Indonesian sovereignty that was still under the form of a federal country, the United States of Indonesia. This second arrangement was made by Jozef Cleber, a Dutch musician, in RRI Jakarta Studio, recorded with a Philips tape recorder and Westrex microphone in 1951. This version became the official, Indonesian government arrangement standard, controlled by the Government Regulation Act No. 1994/1958. It was used for a long time until recently changed to an Indonesian-made rendition by Addie M.S. played his Twilite Orchestra in 1998, with a similar arrangement to Cleber’s, done in collaboration with Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra, Australia, and is recorded digitally.
Back to the original topic, Tjan’s original master recording vinyl is considered lost as only the copies are known to left. It is said that in 1953, Tjan sent the Indonesian government a letter, asking for the vinyl mass redistribution. In 1957, Tjan received a letter from Djawatan Kebudajaan (State Cultural Office), stating that Kusbini, an Indonesian musician, asking the master recording for this “mass redistribution” plan. The master was taken (more likely seized in this sense) by the government and then never returned back to Tjan. A second letter was sent in 1958 by Djawatan Kebudajaan, framing Tjan unilaterally that he willingly granted the government his master, even though Tjan’s original intention was just to ask the government for the help to redistribute, not giving the rights of the master’s physical object. Since then, Djawatan Kebudayaan never contacted Tjan anymore. The master then somehow gone, nowhere to be found.
Kartika Kertayasa, Tjan’s daughter, still possesses the vinyl copy that bears the keroncong style. It is stated that, back in 2015, Udaya Halim or Lim Tjin Pheng, a Chinese-Indonesian businessman and educator, known for his career as a historical building restoration consultant, done a research and met Kartika in the same year and planned to conserve the vinyl copy in his Benteng Heritage Museum in Tangerang. The copy could be exclusively played publicly on site by request in advance.
Up until recently, the digital version of the copies later resurfaced on the internet. The first version with Soepratman’s acapella and violin performance and the second version with instrumental keroncong music.
156. Rekaman Asli Pembunuhan Wayan Mirna (LC)
Is the original full CCTV footage of Wayan Mirna Salihin’s murder in Olivier Cafe, Grand Indonesia Mall, Jakarta, which was unavailable to the public. Mirna’s murder occurred in 2016, caused by cyanide poisoning from a contaminated Vietnamese iced coffee. She was murdered by Jessica Kumala Wongso, an Indonesian, who had previously changed her nationality to Australian, following her education back then with Mirna in the same college. The case’s news coverage was highly anticipated by the Indonesian public at that time because it was controversial, dramatic, and unexpectedly came from an educated and elite class Indonesians, which in public mindset was rather unusual.
The case was convoluted because it is learned later by the Indonesian law enforcement that Jessica’s life record in Australia was chaotic due to her involvement in several crimes. She is also known for having a personal conflict with Mirna, following Mirna’s marriage years before which left Jessica uninvited because Mirna disturbed by her impulsive behavior and disturbance towards her personal life and love relationship. Jessica’s life record in Australia made the public and judiciary convinced of her murder crime motive.
The CCTV footage, which is the sole evidence of Mirna’s murder, is notorious for being poorly recorded, using a typical low quality CCTV resolution. Some short clips of the footage are available on the internet.
157. Sextape Soekarno dan Pramugari Russia (LC)
Back in 1945 to 1960s following his presidential tenure, Soekarno is known to be an anticolonialist and pro-independence politician, and became his charismatic persona towards the Indonesian grassroots. Contrary to popular belief, Soekarno was not an exclusively communist, as seen from his Nasakom policy that combined nationalism, religion, and communism, the three largest political ideology that flourished in Indonesia at that time. Due to his staunch anti big-powers and decolonization stance in the Indonesian foreign policy, his political influence was disliked, or else feared, by both of the world’s colonial powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Several coup attempts to take him down were done by both powers, hoping some neoimperialist control could be established in Southeast Asia, one of the most contested regions during the Cold War.
One of the attempt was a story about Soekarno’s alleged involvement in a sextape scandal with a Russian flight attendant. It was recounted in detail by Darien Cavanaugh in his Medium story. This was based on Soekarno’s personal life of being a polygamous Muslim, having several wives, which he was publicly open and rather not ashamed of because after all, it is legal and permissible according to the Islamic sharia law, even though it is frowned upon in Western, Christian monogamous mindset.
Back then, he was on a flight to Moscow for a visit in the 1960s. The KGB initially tried to trap him by sending good looking women posing as flight attendants to escort him to his hotel, then blackmailing him for “having a disgusting sex affair with Russian women”, but failed. This unknowingly failed event was used by the CIA to spread rumors of Soekarno being a “womanizer” to Soviet spies and to undermine his national hero persona, in order to make a public distrust of his so called “pro-Soviet” politics. Previously in 1958, the CIA did actually sponsor a rebellion in Indonesia, but failed following A.L. Pope capture by the Indonesian government, proving the US involvement in Indonesian regional separatist movements. To push Soekarno’s downfall and cover up this bad blunder, the idea of sextape scandal propaganda later resurfaced, even pushed CIA to make a real pornographic film using Soekarno’s lookalike actors. The plan was found to be a failure and no video has ever surfaced depicting this, disgustingly designed, political “scandal”.
158. Bukti Rekaman Pelecehan Jakarta International School (LC)
Back in April 2014, a huge crime case caused an uproar in the Indonesian public after a student, aged 5, from Jakarta International School (now Jakarta Intercultural School) or JIS, was allegedly became a victim of sexual violence. It is claimed that he was raped by the janitors at the school toilet. This was based on the student’s confession at home, M*** (name redacted for privacy concern) when he was afraid of “having his pants become wet” when his mother attempted to put on his pants. Theresia Pipit Widowati Kroonen, the mother, who married a rather affluent Dutch man named Martijn Kroonen, reported to the school that since then, M*** became silent and afraid of wearing pants, suspecting some kind of violence or harassment targeted to his genital area. Theresia reported this incident to JIS, and the school official investigated M*** for the claimed sexual violence. Because M***’s response is not sufficient enough, the school suggests him to be medically examined by a professional physician.
He then sent to SOS Medika Klinik Laboratory in Cipete, South Jakarta for a blood testing. Although the test needed four days for the sample to be completely examined, Theresia and her lawyer decided to report this earlier even before a sufficient medical report had been established. She reported M***’s incident to the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police for an alleged sodomy, only with a proof based on M***’s testimony of reluctance to wear pants and Theresia’s confession that M*** was sodomized by male and female JIS’ janitors before his birthday and afterwards, roughly on March 15, situated in the school’s toilet. Theresia described the event rather curiously very detailed on behalf of M*** although no significant information was taken from him. Police then referred M*** to Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National Central Public Hospital or RSCM in Jakarta for a more concrete medical visum et repertum to further verify the potential sodomy crime as claimed by Theresia.
On March 25, she sent M*** for a medical visum et repertum in RSCM. The doctor concluded that they “found bruises in the stomach area of blunt object trauma and there were no single wounds found in the orifice”. Strangely, in the subsequent sentence of the doctor’s report as shown in an image below said that “the lack of finding of wounds on the orifice does not rule out the possibility of the incident as told by the victim”. The highlighted line was controversial because according to a correct medical practice, a doctor is prohibited to make any speculations.
The previous examination from SOS Medika Klinik was finally completed on March 26. The clinic reported that M*** was diagnosed with HSV-2 IgM viral infection or herpes. The doctor responsible for the examination said that a herpes infection is possible but is wisely recommended for a further testing to determine the cause and a probable variant of another virus, and suggests Theresia to come back a week later for another test.
It is revealed from a declassified document from Jakarta District Court, of the SOS Medika Klinik’s doctor testimony who handled M***’s lab testing that Theresia did not comply with the doctor’s recommendation to come back for a further diagnosis and instead proceed with the ongoing legal procedure. The doctor testified that the finding of herpes antibody needs to be confirmed whether it was of herpes simplex-2 (HSV-2) or herpes sohter [sic](-red, zoster) (VSV) or shingles disease, as they are of the same virus family.
Assuming that RSCM’s and SOS Medika Klinik’s result is not satisfying enough, Theresia went for another medical testing of anuscopy in Pondok Indah Hospital on May 28, with reports that no abnormality found in M***’s orifice but instead found a scratch and pus wound in rectum distal area with a conclusion of proctitis or inflammation in the rectum.
Most of the medical examination reports agreed that there were no significant damages in M***’s orifice to establish a declaration of sexual violence. Frustrated after Theresia reported the alleged sodomy to the police rather detailed even though medical reports said that the evidences are negligible for a possible sodomy as claimed by her, she insisted that there must be a suspect. She relied on the first testing of an unverified herpes diagnosis and M***’s testimony of him not wanting to wear pants and further expanded as M*** said that the perpetrator(s) was/were wearing blue clothes, which are similar to those of JIS’ janitors.
The case later developed into a chaotic mess, mainly the law enforcement’s poor professionalism, and ignorance to the “innocent unless proven guilty” legal principle. The judicial procedure was done strictly closed and scandalous, resulting in several accused JIS’ janitors detained in the police jail in a hastily manner. The public were shocked when they found out that the janitors suffered prison violence and intimidation by the police during the so-called “interrogation process”. They experienced interrogation with verbal and physical abuse in order to make them “confess”. One of them died of suicide from ingesting floor cleaner fluid of a possible mental health disturbance during the detainment process.
Theresia then hired O.C. Kaligis, a well-known Indonesian lawyer. On April 21, the case was later turned into a civil lawsuit with a financial sue reaching 12.5 US dollars. She also gathered help from organizations like Lembaga Perlindungan Saksi dan Korban ‘Witness and Victim Protection Agency’ (LPSK) and Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia ‘Indonesian Child Protection Commission’ (KPAI) to further secure their sympathy. Most of JIS’ student parents were already suspicious for the lawsuit switch hitherto, seeing the financial compensation demand was irrelevant as the alleged sexual violence should follow the original criminal lawsuit.
Strangely, even when most of the accused perpetrators were the janitors, Theresia then conspired with another student’s parents to frame JIS’ teachers. One of them is Dewi Reich Delpozo, who claimed that on May 16, her son, A*** (name redacted for privacy concern) was sexually abused, and on May 28, was raped 20 times by the JIS’ teachers. Previously, on May 5, Dewi already sent his son for a medical examination in Singapore, but result said no indication of sodomy ever found. Another parent named Deniz Akar also testified similarly on May 19. This collection of testimony became the ground for Kaligis to raise the initial 12.5 to a striking 125 million US dollars worth of compensation demand on May 28. On June 6, Dewi reported that the perpetrators from JIS’ teachers are Neil Bantleman and Ferdinand Tjiong. Later, on June 11, Theresia reported the similar.
It was revealed from the ensuing legal procedure that Theresia allegedly committed perjury to the court. A second visum from Pondok Indah Hospital on April 28 from Dr. MLS (full name censored for privacy concern) as mentioned earlier, is said to be only quoting from (derivative of) a doctor report made earlier on March 27 by Dr. OCN (full name censored for privacy concern). In Dr. OCN’s report, it is written as if an anal examination was done, although it wasn’t. Dr. OCN testified, according to her written testimony letter, to the Komisi Kepolisian Nasional ‘National Police Commission’ (Kompolnas) that her previous report which diagnosed M*** with herpes genitalis (HSV-2) of a pedophilia rape, was quote: “made accordingly to fulfill Mrs. Theresia Pipit Widowati Kroonen’s request … whom the concerned, said she needed the doctor’s report to acquire medical examination and treatment cost reimbursement from the company where his husband works”. And then, quote: “In which case, the conclusion that MAK (name censored for privacy concern) was raped by (a) pedophile(s) at school was informed by Mrs. Theresia Pipit Widowati Kroonen”.
Following Dr. OCN’s testimony, Kompolnas released a recommendation letter saying that quote: “1) doctor’s report from Pondok Indah Hospital was not supposed to be used by the investigator as an evidence according to Article 184 Indonesian Criminal Procedure Code, and 2) on such ground, it is strongly suspected that the investigation process done by the Indonesian Police based on the doctor’s report did not meet the rules of a professional and independent investigation process”. Ikatan Dokter Indonesia ‘Indonesian Doctors Association’ (IDI) also released a similar statement, said: “… Therefore, we declare that the doctor’s report is not legitimate to be used for any kind of purpose, and necessary corrections are required”.
This very much convoluted conspiracy and outrageous scandal was done because allegedly Kaligis and Theresia realized that suing JIS for money compensation would not work according to legal procedure because the janitors were outsourced employees from a company named Indonesia Servant Service (ISS). ISS also previously fired the janitors despite Indonesian labor law rules that a company shall protect their employees during an event of legal dispute until the court decision was final. So, after facing this legal hindrance, it is presumed that they went rampant and fabricated the story in order to make JIS pay the compensation instead.
Despite having numerous amount of flawed evidences and testimonies, the Indonesian court convicted all defendants guilty of the crime, but the civil lawsuit was halted because Kaligis was imprisoned of a corruption crime later in 2015 for bribing the Medan State Administrative Court’s judge and court clerk after an extensive investigation by Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi ‘Corruption Eradication Commission’ (KPK). The case was notorious for involving alleged perjuries, poor judicial neutrality towards the defendants who didn’t even completed their trials, unreliable child’s testimony (mostly fabricated by the mother), inaccurate medical visum, and premeditated legal collusion afterwards.
This item is cited from a nine part Kaskus post. The case was thoroughly investigated independently by Rudi Valinka aka Kurawa, a Twitter personality, reposted by a Kaskus user with the handle radit(dot)indomobil in 2016, campaigning the justice and freedom of the wrongly accused. Any video footage of the alleged sexual violence crime is unavailable to the public, perhaps even never ever existed from the first place.
159. Notulensi BPUPKI & PPKI (LC)
Badan Penyelidik Usaha-Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI) or the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence (Japanese=Dokuritsu Junbi Chosakai) and the Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (PPKI) or the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (Japanese=Dokuritsu Junbi Inkai), was two Imperial Japanese Government institutions made in order to prepare the Indonesian independence following the Japanese occupation and war in Asia-Pacific during World War II. BPUPKI was established on February 1945, by the Japanese military in Java after they occupied the Dutch East Indies. PPKI was established later with a permission from Lieutenant General Hisaichi Terauchi on behalf of the Imperial Japanese Government on August 1945, preceding the Hiroshima bombing.
The two bodies were responsible to formulate the Indonesian national political basis, namely the state ideology and constitution, which resulted in the creation of Pancasila, the Indonesian political philosophy that was handled by the BPUPKI, and the Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945 (The Republic of Indonesia State Constitution of 1945) composed later by the PPKI. The bodies held several plenary meetings, involved many Indonesian nationalist politicians, students, local figures, clerics, peasants, and many other participants in a hearing session and oration to discuss the most suitable Indonesian state principles.
The original notulensi rapat or minutes of the both bodies’ plenary meetings documents were lost. The plenary meetings is said, in an essay published by Tirto explaining this case in detail, to be written by two stenographers which should be the original and most authentic minutes that reports the whole session’s discussion completely. The document was lost for 30 years after it is known that two copies were held by Abdoel Gaffar Pringgodigdo, which was later seized by the Dutch government following the first Dutch military offensive or the Kraai Operation in December 1948 to the already sovereign Indonesian republic. The second one was held by his brother, Abdoel Karim Pringgodigdo and was safely maintained in his personal collection.
In the mid 1950s, Muhammad Yamin, borrowed the minutes copy held by A. K. Pringgodigdo for his study about the UUD 1945 formulation. He then published three volume of books titled Naskah Persiapan UUD 1945 (The UUD 1945 Draft Preparation) in 1959. Yamin never returned the minutes copy, thus making his book as the only Indonesian historical reference of those events until the mid 1990s. Nugroho Notosusanto, a historian from the University of Indonesia who established the Indonesian Armed Forces Historical Center wrote a book titled Naskah Proklamasi yang Otentik dan Rumusan Pancasila yang Otentik (The Authentic Proclamation Draft and the Authentic Pancasila Formulation), published by Balai Pustaka, a state publishing company, which referenced Yamin’s book. Notosusanto’s book became the Indonesian Armed Forces main learning material, notoriously known for dismissing Soekarno’s involvement during the plenary meetings. Notosusanto rejects the fact of Soekarno being the founder of Pancasila, later exaggerated Yamin’s and Soepomo’s oration as the sole creator and inspiration of Pancasila.
For context, this was done because Soeharto’s New Order regime is known for erasing and manipulating several Indonesian historical facts, especially anything involving Soekarno and his contrasting political ideology, coinciding with the US intervention of the establishment of Indonesian military junta. Notosusanto’s claim was rejected by the direct historical witnesses, mainly Mohammad Hatta, Soekarno’s closest compatriot who later held the vice presidency position of Indonesia. Another Soekarno’s closest fellows like Achmad Soebardjo and Alexander Andries Maramis also rejected Notosusanto’s narratives. The New Order investigated the problematic historical facts following the incident, then published a book titled Risalah Sidang BPUPKI/PPKI (The BPUPKI/PPKI Session Proceedings), yet to still containing primary references to Yamin’s book. After that, the book still becomes the official national educational reference, still undermining Soekarno’s figure and aggrandized Yamin’s role, as a state propaganda.
The finding of the copy of the minutes turned this state propaganda upside down when Yamin’s family in Surakarta found the document which was borrowed from a long time ago by Yamin. A Dutch repatriation of the seized document earlier also occurred in 1994. These two occasion sparked the attempt to deconstruct Yamin’s book. A. B. Kusuma, the editor of Risalah Sidang BPUPKI/PPKI, wrote another book called Lahirnya Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 (The Birth of the 1945 Constitution). He stated that Yamin wasn’t the sole inspiration and orator during the plenary meeting as stated in Yamin’s own book, instead he only gave speech for a mere 20 minutes. Kusuma also said that Soepomo never really gave the original 5 principles as the Pancasila is today, rather more principles were given. It was concluded that Soekarno was really the main figure and inspiration of the 5 principles of Pancasila, the one who suggested the name Pancasila, and gave a full and coherent explanation of it during the sessions. He even found that Soekarno offered another solution of Pancasila in brief points of three principles, Trisila, then simplified as one principle, Ekasila.
The lost of the original document of BPUPKI/PPKI’s plenary meeting sessions minutes initiated the public debate of the historical truth pertaining the early years of the Indonesian national foundation creation. The finding of copies held by Yamin’s family fortunately deconstructed the fabricated claims made by New Order’s authoritarian regime in lieu of Yamin’s and Notosusanto’s study.
160. Dokumen TPF Munir (LC)
Munir Said Thalib was an Indonesian human rights activist, an avid Soeharto’s authoritarian regime critic, and the founder of Komisi Untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan (Commission for the Disappeared Persons and the Victims of Violence Actions) or KontraS. He was assassinated by arsenic poisoning during his flight to Amsterdam in 2004, prior arriving to Utrecht University for continuing his master’s degree in international law and human rights, on Garuda Indonesia Flight 974.
Following his death, the Indonesian government initiated an investigation, primarily suspecting the pilot in-charge of the flight, Pollycarpus Priyanto when he left the flight directly to Singapore after Munir’s passing and went back to Indonesia.
A CNN Indonesia news coverage stated that the Indonesian president at that time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, released a Presidential Decree No. 111/2004 of Munir’s Fact Finding Team Establishment in order to bring truths up to this convoluted tragedy. The Tim Pencari Fakta (TPF) ‘fact-finding team’ was led by Brigadier General Marsudi Hanafi and involved several human rights activists. The TPF’s task was ended on 2005, resulting in some fact findings and a policy brief containing three suggestions to President Yudhoyono, but any of them were never published to the public. Following the TPF’s finding, KontraS sued them to the Komite Informasi Publik or KIP (Public Information Committee). They fulfilled KontraS request to publish the finding. The committee legally asked the Ministry of the State Secretariat to release the documents, but they instead told KIP that the ministry never even possessed the said item.
Surprisingly, the ministry then sued KIP to the State Administrative Court and they fulfilled the ministry’s request, dismissing the ministry’s legal obligation of releasing the documents. The documents are said to be containing sensitive findings, possibly involving high-ranking Indonesian politicians, whether still in power or not, with Yudhoyono’s government afraid of wreaking a political havoc during his presidency, risking his political power position and his circles.
The fact-finding team document copies were later sent to several Indonesian institutions, including President Joko Widodo in 2016. To no avail, this documents are never ever released publicly due to said suspicion of the government’s involvement in Munir’s assassination. Arif Maulana, an activist from the Committee of Solidarity Actions to Munir, stated that government intentionally kept reluctant to publish the documents due to the alleged involvement of the Ex-Chief of the State Intelligence Agency, Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono.
161. Naskah Asli Supersemar (LC)
Supersemar or the Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret (Order of Eleventh March) is a controversial political document signed by the First Indonesian President, Soekarno, on March 11, 1966, following the Indonesian mass killings in 1965–1966 of the alleged communists, mandated to Lieutenant General Soeharto to restore public order over the political chaos.
The following document in English is written as this:
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
ORDER
I. Considering
1.1 The current state of the Revolution, together with the national and international political situation
1.2 The Order of the Day of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic/President/Great Leader of the Revolution dated 8 March 1966II. Taking into account
2.1 The need for calm and stability of the Government and the progress of the Revolution
2.2 The need for a guarantee of integrity of the Great Leader of the Revolution, [the Armed Forces] and the People to preserve the leadership and obligations of the President/Supreme Commander/Great Leader of the Revolution and his teachingsIII. Decides/Orders
LIEUTENANT GENERAL SOEHARTO, MINISTER/COMMANDER OF THE ARMY
To: In the name of the President/Supreme Commander/Great Leader of the Revolution
1. Take all measures deemed necessary to guarantee security and calm as well as the stability of the progress of the Revolution, as well as to guarantee the personal safety and authority of the leadership of the President/Supreme Commander/Great Leader of the Revolution/holder of the Mandate of the [Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly] for the sake of the integrity of the Nation and State of the Republic of Indonesia, and to resolutely implement all the teachings of the Great Leader of the Revolution.
2. Coordinate the execution of orders with the commanders of the other forces to the best of his ability.
3. Report all actions related to duties and responsibilities as stated above.IV. Ends
Jakarta, 11 March 1966
PRESIDENT/SUPREME COMMANDER/GREAT LEADER OF THE REVOLUTION/HOLDER OF THE MANDATE OF THE [PROVISIONAL PEOPLE’S CONSULTATIVE ASSEMBLY]
The document was a direct cause of Soekarno’s downfall, following Soeharto’s successful coup attempt after purposefully misinterpreted the third section as a major political decree, rather a simple instruction. This led Soeharto to exploit the Supersemar as a transfer of power directive of the Indonesian executive power from Soekarno to him. Following this event, Soeharto later released a semiconstitutional-level resolution, dismissing Supersemar’s legal power. He arranged a legislative election in 1971, resulting in a landslide victory of Golongan Karya (Soeharto-backed “political group” in disguise of a political party), a far-right anticommunist party that won a stunning majority of 62 percent votes.
The Supersemar document was notorious for being questionable and problematic, because it is revealed that the original version of the letter was lost, when the former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Soekarno’s daughter, ordered the Indonesian National Archives Agency of thorough examination to seek the original document, only for them to found two copies from the Indonesian Army Information Center and the Ministry of the State Secretariat. Even more suspicious, the documents bear several dissimilarity, ranging from omitted words, different phrasing or spelling, different stroke of Soekarno’s signature, and different letter kernings.
Supersemar became one of the most baffling, if not highly scandalous, silent witness of Soeharto’s successful coup attempt. It is remembered as a butterfly effect disaster that caused a 32 years of far-right authoritarian dictatorship resulting in the decline of Indonesian geopolitical power. It made the Indonesian foreign policy became docile after Soekarno’s anticolonialist regime and marked the beginning of capitalism win in Indonesian politics and the rise of the US intervention in Indonesia, mainly the Freeport-McMoran gold mine exploitation in Papua, anti-communist and anti-left wing propaganda, Chinese-Indonesian discrimination, and the persecution of political dissent, under a military junta, that were also flourished in many countries under the US influence. This left a culture of parochial citizens under a corrupt capitalism crony in Indonesian politics.
Disclaimer
The writer is apologizing deeply for any coincidence and similarity of names or events. Any materials owned by another creator and mentioned without proper credit is the writer’s sole unintentional mistake. Kindly inform for any missing credit attribution. Commentaries are welcomed to point out any significant errors found in the process of writing this article. This article is open for any kind of criticism. Readers are highly recommended to give their insights to enhance the facts.
