T

he way I see it, almost everybody, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity, loves soccer,” says Agung, a prison warden and central character in a 13-espisode drama series titled Tim Bui, which is due to air on Indonesian television screens this week.

The brainchild of international NGO Search for Common Ground (SFCG), Tim Bui is set in the fictional prison of Lawang Betung, which is spiraling into chaos due to the violent rivalry of two ethnic gangs and the heavy-handed policies of some prison staff.

Into this disorder comes Nina, a head warden with fresh ideas and leadership. Using the unifying power of soccer, she and Agung work to transform the relationship of the inmates from one that is riddled with animosity to one of cooperation and mutual benefit.

“Tim Bui doesn’t just focus on one tension or issue,” says Scott Cunliffe, director of SFCG Indonesia. “It deals with intolerance toward minorities, corruption, the treatment of prisoners, institutional reform, the de-radicalization of convicted terrorists and their disengagement from violence and women’s leadership.”

Cunliffe goes on to explain that the series is based on SFCG’s global model, called The Team, which has already been aired in 17 different countries. “Tim Bui is the Indonesian take on what we have been taking forward across the world. It’s produced and directed by Indonesians for Indonesia,” he says at the well-attended premiere of the series. “It really deals with some hard-hitting issues and hopefully shows realistic ways of overcoming conflict while also bringing a bit more variety to Indonesian TV.”

An organization with 30 years of conflict transformation and peace-building experience across the world, this year SFCG celebrates its 10-year anniversary of working in Indonesia. And while for some, the large-scale conflicts associated with the early Reformasi period are a thing of the past, for Cunliffe et al., there remains what he terms a “negative peace” in quite a few areas, with small-scale violence still taking place across the country and still a great deal of scope for turning that negative peace into a positive one.

So how is SFCG, recently named as one of the world’s top 100 NGOs in The Global Journal, going about its work?

“We don’t necessarily see conflict as bad, but as a natural thing,” explains Cunliffe. “For us, it’s about changing conflict into something positive, and we do that by looking for the middle ground. We realize that we can’t agree on everything, but the things that we can talk about, we take a look at.”

In a country with the size and diversity of Indonesia, one might be forgiven for thinking that this is a task of gargantuan proportions. To this end, SFCG looks to collaborate anywhere it can. For the making of Tim Bui, for example, the likes of the British and Australian governments’ aid programs were both brought on board, along with local media partner SET Film.

The upcoming television series appears to be just one method of SFCG’s wider peace-building work.

“We’ve visited many pesantren [Islamic boarding schools] and done work around religious tolerance and critical thinking,” says Cunliffe, who also talks of debating programs in public schools that have reached thousands of students across Java and perhaps more importantly, have also brought teachers on board so that positive messages can be sustained in the longterm.

The NGO also has a program that focuses on women, which works with the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council to strengthen their roles in the public sphere. The program has already supported women to transform conflict in divided areas such as East Jakarta and Central
Kalimantan.

Then there’s a whole other arm of SFCG’s work dedicated to justice and the rule of law in Indonesia, and in particular, encouraging law enforcement officials to deal with conflict in healthier, more productive ways.

But it is the use of various types of media that appears to be unique and innovative about SFCG’s work.

If employed correctly, the use of mass media promises much in terms of positively influencing attitudes and behavior on a large scale. Focusing on peace-building themes, SFCG has used radio dramas, interactive talk shows, documentary films and comics to achieve its aims. Through these various mediums, SFCG reached over a million Indonesians last year.

If that’s an impressive statistic, it’s also one that Cunliffe and team certainly do not appear to be resting easy on. With the help of teachers and prison authorities, the launch of Tim Bui will be accompanied by community outreach work that sees the messages of the series taken into pesantren and prisons across Indonesia through workshops and soccer competitions.

And to maximize interest in the series, the well-known Indonesian rock band Slank has written the theme song and performs it on the series’ trailer.

“If you’re going to have an impact then you need to catch people’s attention,” says Cunliffe, and given the throngs of people attending the series’ premiere in Central Jakarta, his organization has certainly done that with Tim Bui.

But ratings apart, one senses that Tim Bui’s real value will come in the way it will link viewers to the issues at hand.  

“Not everybody wants to talk about these issues,” explains Cunliffe. “But Tim Bui is a great way for people to get indirectly engaged, rather than tackling what can be sensitive subjects head on.”

Given that the series is being aired on national television, there also appears to be great scope for its messages to reach Indonesia’s large and diverse population.

And as the first episode of the series comes to a close, it is that very diversity that prison staff decided to harness to overcome the inmates’ animosities. “In soccer, there’s a vision and a mission with one purpose,” says warden Agung. “It’s just like Bhinneka Tunggal Ika – although we have many differences, we are united.”

It’s a fitting beginning to a series that has both ambitious and noble aims.

Tim Bui will begin on Sunday Feb. 19 on Metro TV from 1:30 – 2 p.m.