TFW Everything You Loved From Childhood Reveals Itself as New Order Propaganda
Photo collage by Dini Lestari 

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

20 Years of Reformasi

TFW Everything You Loved From Childhood Reveals Itself as New Order Propaganda

A reflection on a time when pop culture was really propaganda culture.

A lot of people believe the '90s were the best times in recent memory. It was simpler times. Life was easier. People were happier. Kids played with actual toys, not smartphone games. Even TV was better (the "Golden Age of Television" my ass). Remember how great the weekends were? How much you would look forward to staying in to watch cartoons and Chinese vampire movies?

But was it really that good? Or was it all just government propaganda?

Advertisement

Here's something a lot of people don't know: the New Order regime's propaganda tendrils squirmed their way into far more than just the news and high school history books. The New Order inserted all kinds of propaganda into our pop culture too.

Now, like all great propaganda, I had no idea it was even in my childhood favorites. I seriously just realized 20 years later that "Krismon," by Cindy Cenora is the most-political children's song ever. The song's about how kids need to understand that their parents were struggling in a poor economy. It was a time when the rupiah weakened from Rp 2,500 to the US dollar to Rp 12,500 on the US dollar by 1998.

Here's the lyrics, translated for your convenience: I want new clothes / But it's krismon now / I want new shoes/ But it's krismon now/ Su su sah su su su sah / Everything is expensive now.

Cindy released another song that hit the government propaganda nail a hit harder on the head. This one was called "Aku Cinta Rupiah," or "I Love Rupiah," and it was all part of a calculated plan to convince children to nag their parents about converting their US dollars back to rupiah—instead of, I guess, bugging them for new shoes.

The whole "Aku Cinta Rupiah," campaign was the brainchild of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, then the minister of social affairs and also Gen. Suharto's first-born daughter. So here you have a saccharine pop star making songs for children and Suharto-era monetary policies. And you want to know the craziest thing? Even today, I can still sing every word.

Advertisement

Here's the lyrics, translated for anyone who doesn't understand Bahasa Indonesia: I love rupiah / Even when dollars are everywhere / I love rupiah / Because I’m Indonesian / I love rupiah / Even when dollars are everywhere / I love rupiah / Because I live in Indonesia / Dollar is American currency / Rupiah is Indonesian currency / Papa converts his dollar / Mama can buy anything with rupiah.

It's catchier in the original Bahasa Indonesia, I swear.

This kind of nationalism seemed into "Krismon," as well, when Cindy sang: I love Indonesian products / They're cheap, but still good / I love Indonesian products / They're available everywhere.

Pieces of Suharto's New Order-era nationalism echoed throughout everything in Indonesia at the time. It was like someone at the top thought it was us children, the kids of the '90s, who were the reason our parents were converting their rupiah to US dollars—and not the disastrous fiscal policies of those at the top instead.

Did any of us understand what these songs were actually about? Hell no. We were still way too young. I didn't understand anything about how money worked, let alone complex stuff like foreign exchange markets. And also, why was Cindy only singing for rich kids? What about all the families whose parents couldn't even afford to stockpile US currency in the first place? Where's our song?

In 1998, 16 banks were closed by the Indonesian government after regulators discovered that they didn't have enough money in reserves. The situation in Indonesia, which had successfully rode out the early pangs of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 was suddenly went into a death spiral. Few countries were hit as hard by the financial crisis than Indonesia, and despite the constant complaints of Suharto and his cronies, much of it was our own government's fault.

Advertisement

"The political oligarchy was used to exploiting the economy by using the state [during the New Order years]," said JJ Rizal, an independent historian at Komunitas Bambu. "Something like that could only be done by the elites. In this situation, the rupiah spiraled out of control, and the USD exchange rates became really high."

But instead of making songs about, I don't know, how cronyism and corruption were ruining the country, the Ministry of Social Affairs concerned itself with attempts to distract the public from what was really going on in the economy at the time.

The whole "aku cinta rupiah," thing seeped into our television shows too. Take a look at this episode of the hit sinetron series Tuyul & Mbak Yul where Yulia, played by Dominique Sanda, and Sandra, Ersa Mayori, have a rather unusual conversation about the economic state of the country for a show that centered on the comedic exploits of two reformed tuyul—spirits who, in Indonesia, hide in walls and steal your money and valuables.

Here's the conversation:

Sandra: But is it possible that it (the country running out of food) could happen again?
Yulia: No, that was just the work of hoarders. Besides, once the market runs out of supply the government restocks the rice right away.
Sandra: Really? How do you know?
Yulia: You really need to pick up a newspaper. The government has guaranteed that we have enough food staples until March. In the same episode, Yulia and her friend Bella argue about whether or not Yulia should keep her US dollars or convert them to rupiah (see a trend here?). Yulia refuses to listen to Bella and keep her money in US dollars.

Advertisement

Bella: You want to sell your dollars? How much?
Yulia: About $6,000 USD.
Bella: But why didn't you sell it when it's Rp 11,000 to the dollar? That would've done you good. Now you should just save it. Wait until the currency gets better.
Sandra: That's if it gets better. What if it doesn't?
Bella: Then you buy more dollars and save those. It would be pretty good.
Yulia: Hey, but that means we're making an already bad economic system a lot worse. Don't you know that everyone is trying to save us from this monetary crisis? Just look at the students, they made a campaign called "I love rupiah," but we are just making things worse. I think now, more than ever, we should sell our US dollars. Just sell all of them.

Now all of this was in a show about mythical creatures who, through the use of terribly cheesy blue screen, disappeared inside of walls all the time. But the "aku cinta rupiah," campaign was too interested in getting in front of people's eyes and ears, regardless of whether or not it even made sense, to care. But there was another myth at work here too, explained JJ Rizal, the myth that everything local was inherently better.

"This propaganda is a political product taking advantage of the people's love of nationalism, one that a lot of Indonesians tend to oversimplify," JJ Rizal told me. "Nationalism is the love of your country, regardless of whether it's right or wrong. But it's not like that here. Here, people cover all the negative sides, and that's why the term 'myth nationalism,' is very fitting."

The problem though was the fact that all of these songs and sinetron were made for children, not adults. So why did the New Order feel so compelled to get messages across about the economy to children?

JJ Rizal told me that it was likely because the New Order liked to try to mold people's minds young. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, school children were forced to watch the anti-communist propaganda film Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI, or "the treachery of the 30 Sept. movement and the Indonesian Communist Party," every single year. It was a horrifically violent, and insanely long, propaganda film that terrorized us annually for much of our childhood.

I felt like I knew what it was like to have my brain hijacked by propaganda, but once I realized that I went 20 years without even noticing this pretty blatant propaganda in some of the most-popular pop culture of my youth, I wonder how much else is out there, still unacknowledged.