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Cover Story: The challenge of how
ROCK STAR TRIAWAN MUNAF BECAME AN ADVERTISING MAD MAN
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ROCK STAR TRIAWAN MUNAF BECAME AN ADVERTISING MAD MAN. NOW HE'S EAGER TO BREAK THROUGH THE BUREAUCRACY AS THE PRESIDENT'S POINT MAN FOR THE CREATIVE ECONOMY
Words CHRISTIAN RAZUKAS - Photos ARIEF SUHARDIMAN
Ask Triawan Munaf about how it has been running the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), and he'll talk about meeting the curator of an art exhibition staged in Kemang, South Jakarta, last year.
'The theme was 'Vertical Horizons', he says during a JPlus interview at the Alila Jakarta hotel. 'It came into my mind that this is what is happening to me right now'my life situation and the transition from a meritocracy in advertising, where there is no hierarchy,' he says. 'Suddenly, I'm in a hierarchy, with people saying 'Izin, pak. Izin, pak'.'
The phrase means 'with your permission, sir.'
Triawan said he set up an installation to capture the angst.
'I'm a musician, also, so I created two keyboards,' he says. 'One is horizontal. It works just like when you play the piano.' The other keyboard is mounted vertically. 'When you touch the keys, it sounds like a siren.'
At Bekraf, Triawan oversees a staggering 16 economic sub-sectors, ranging from advertising to the culinary arts to fashion, film and music, all of which contribute about Rp 900 trillion to the nation's economy.
While it's a remit that the 57-year-old says may sometimes be too much for the agency to handle, it's something that the former musician and advertising executive is uniquely suited to handle.
POINTS OF ORIGIN
'Music is in my family,' says Triawan, born the third of four children on Nov. 28, 1958 in Bandung, West Java. 'My brothers were playing music, my sisters were playing music.' His cousin is the musician Fariz RM, famous for all-time great songs such as 'Barcelona and 'Sakura'. (Fariz will be performing at Motion Blue Jakarta at the Fairmont Hotel in February.) 'He's a genius,' Taiwan adds.
Hating formal piano lessons as a kid, Triawan said he loved classic rock bands like Deep Purple, Genesis and Led Zeppelin. He formed a band, Wishing Well, in junior high school, although its first gig'playing at a school's farewell party, was inauspicious: The band took the stage late, at 11:55 p.m. and stopped playing less than half a song later, when the house lights came up at midnight to end the evening.
Undeterred, Triawan formed another band, The Lizard, and met Benny Soebardja, the so-called godfather of Indonesia's independent and progressive rock scene in the 1970s and 1980s. 'I played with a guitarist'Harry,' Triawan said. 'He had a brother, Benny Soebardja. When Benny needed some players, he recruited us from that band.'
What followed was the album Benny Soebarja and The Lizards, recorded when Triawan was a scant 16 years old'almost a decade younger than his band mates. 'I was very excited to see the cassette on the shelf,' he says. 'Suddenly we were well known in Bandung, but Bandung was so small, so we were the 'elite' at that time.' He laughs.
While his parents didn't like having a rock-n-roller son, they let Triawan put high school on hold to tour with the band in places like Jakarta; Semarang, Central Java; Yogyakarta and Malang, East Java; where the crowds went wild. 'Because we were from Bandung, we were less hated in Malang,' he says. 'For Jakarta bands, it was very hard, but, being from Bandung, we were loved.'
Eventually Benny asked Triawan to play keyboards for his main band, Giant Step, after Deddy Dores left to form Superkid.
In 1985, Giant Step was contacted by Judhi Kristiantho, a well-known easy listening producer, to make a new album. 'I was surprised,' Triawan said. 'Really? I'm signed for an album? This was a prog-rock band!'
They poured their talent into the project, which was Triawan's third album with the band. He also wrote most of the songs, the keyboardist says.
Members were aghast, however, when Judhi said he would shelve the new album because it didn't have a 'lagu jagoan', or hit song, that could sell.
''OK, give me half an hour,' Triawan told the producer. Thirty minutes later, he emerged with 'Geregetan' (Worked Up), a pop-bubblegum tune.
Judhi loved it, the album took its name from it'and the song went on'much to Triawan's apparent unease'to be the band's enduring hit.
'It was all stress,' he says about the song. 'I knew all of the other members of [our] competition would be laughing at us.'
'Geregetan', however, remains popular. Triawan's daughter, the singer Sherina, even remade it in 2009 for her album, Gemini.
Triawan said he had no idea Sherina (one of three children he has had with his wife, Luki Ariana) would choose the band's least progressive offering when he gave her permission to use one of his songs.
'No, Sherina! Please don't!' Triawan said he told his daughter after finding out she would remake 'Gergetan'. 'Don't use my name!' He praises Sherina's version, though, which he says has a contemporary and more mainstream beat.
'SALAM DUA JARI'
While in Giant Step, Triawan started at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung before going to study video production in London, the UK. Plans to return to Jakarta and direct commercials, however, went awry when the New Order banned television ads, leading Triawan to work in advertising.
'I love communicating,' Triawan says on the career change. He formed his own agency in 1989, was bought out in 1994 and later launched a smaller agency'one where he could better take care of his staff.
While neither spin doctor nor politician, Triawan is no stranger to politics. In 1999, he helped redesign the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) venerable logo, creating one of the nation's most recognizable icons.
'We said you have to revamp your image,' Triawan says of his meeting with party chief (later president) Megawati Sukarnoputri. 'Your party is old and there is no clear direction. So we came up with a concept'a fresh concept.
'As usual in advertising, the best results come from the owner. You don't go to the executive director. The owner has the soul.' Megawati gave the green light to his idea.
Triawan also worked for Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo during the last presidential election and was part of the team that came up with another iconic political image: the salam dua jari, or two-finger salute.
The salute was conceived at a time when Jokowi was almost overtaken by his rival Prabowo Subianto, he says. At its core was a philosophy Triawan emphasized throughout the campaign: 'Whoever attacks suffers consequences''a lesson he said he learned from a close watching of the debates between Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 US election.
'This campaign was very different,' Triawan says of Jokowi. 'It was a people's campaign. People came out with ideas with creativity. So it wasn't driven from above, but bottom up.'
A similar egalitarian ethos has driven Triawan as the head of Bekraf since his inauguration in January 2015.
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" My challenge is not working on what is to be done. My challenge is how."
CREATIVE ECONOMY
Creative economy as a government portfolio was sheared off from the Tourism Ministry under Jokowi. It seems that this is how Triawan likes it: A lean agency organized to move fast to cover a huge remit.
'The challenge is to organize the ecosystem,' Triawan says. 'The infrastructure has been in shambles.'
Under Triawan, Bekraf has been working on plans to teach moms how to code, developing a 'Terasa Indonesia' program touting the nation's cuisine and leading a government crackdown on music and movie piracy.
He's close to realizing a plan to open movie theaters up to foreign investment. While Traiwan's been busy juggling the concerns of existing theater operators, he says he's got broad consensus, inside and outside the government, for his plan.
If Triawan clears the final hurdle of presidential approval, it will be his first major successful initiative'and a game changer in a country with fewer screens than Vietnam and where many provinces have no cinemas whatsoever.
Triawan declined to talk in detail about specific initiatives in the other 15 sub-sectors he overseas.
'My challenge is not working on what is to be done,' Triawan says. 'My challenge is how.'
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" I'm trying not to be too frustrated [...] I'm still looking for the right routes."
He continues. 'Creative is very flexible, very dynamic'if you think of something good now, suddenly there are meetings tomorrow.' There's just no flexibility in government, he adds.
Rigid rules on spending state money mean that civil servants have to give their OK before a single rupiah can be spent'no matter what Triawan, as a political appointee, wants.
It's a problem plaguing local leaders throughout Indonesia, the President included.
'We need to move quicker. Even pak Jokowi told me, 'See how difficult it is?'' Triawan laughs. 'The government has the money. If I ask for more money, they will grant it'but can I spend it?'
Triawan says he's been working to change the civil service mind-set and standard operating procedures, teaming up with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Financial Education and Training Agency (BPPK) to streamline the process.
The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) is even using Triawan's shop as a case study for reform.
'The challenge is in changing regulations'in all sectors. Otherwise we will just jalan di tempat,' he says, meaning running in place.
'I'm trying not to be too frustrated,' he says. 'I'm still looking for the right routes.'
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SIDE SPIN
How about a Giant Step reunion?
'No way!' Triawan says, bursting into laughter. 'When I play music and perform for other people who pay, I want it to be perfect. It would take time'and I don't have the time to practice.'
What's on his playlist?
As a favorite, Triawan cites the album Guruh Gipsy, a 1976 collaboration between Guruh Sukarnoputra and the rock band Gipsy. 'I love the marriage of Balinese music and progressive music and the harmony it achieved. It's not only experimental; [Guruh] created good songs. Suddenly, there was a new capability that opened up the possibility of marrying East and West.'
Elvis or The Beatles?
On choosing between the King of Rock and Roll or the Lads from Liverpool, Triawan comes down on the side of The Beatles, citing the hundreds of songs penned by Lennon and McCartney. 'I love the Beatles'their humanity, love and peace. There's an inner sense of balance and of creating and doing impossible things.'
