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City to control ‘ondel-ondel’ street performance
Fear of strangers: A crying toddler grabs hold of her mother after being scared by ondel-ondel (giant Betawi effigies) at a festival in Bintaro, South Jakarta, on Aug
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ear of strangers: A crying toddler grabs hold of her mother after being scared by ondel-ondel (giant Betawi effigies) at a festival in Bintaro, South Jakarta, on Aug. 25.(JP/David Caessarre)
If you live in Jakarta you will no doubt have seen ondel-ondel (giant Betawi effigies) being paraded by buskers in many corners of the city. With loud screeching sounds, usually a group of people — mostly children — walk along the street, each with their own task: one in the costume, one pushing a small cart with a cassette player and a loudspeaker, and the rest carrying buckets asking passersby for money.
Ondel-ondel street performers have been busking in the Jakarta streets more and more lately, bringing along one, sometimes a pair, of the giant puppets that have become an icon of Jakarta and Betawi culture.
Their growing number, however, has caused the Jakarta administration to consider controlling their performance over concerns they do not represent real cultural value and also contribute to traffic congestion as they walk slowly in groups.
“We plan to manage the street performers to improve their performance. We will teach them how to correctly represent Betawi culture instead of banning them,” Jakarta Culture and Tourism Agency acting head Asiantoro told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said ondel-ondel street performances were now different from how they used to be. He noticed that the costumes were different, and also they used recorded music instead of playing instruments.
“Ondel-ondel are an icon of Betawi culture. The street performers should be put on the right track so people don’t show animosity toward the culture,” Asiantoro said.
Betawi-native Muhammad Waldi, 24, an ondel-ondel street performer and puppet maker based in Kramat subdistrict, Senen district, Central Jakarta, expressed hope that the plan would benefit the performers. Waldi has been an ondel-ondel performer since 2009, when he founded the Irama Betawi studio. “I do not get many offers to perform ondel-ondel at events, let alone orders to make puppets, so I have to perform on the streets to cover my family’s daily needs,” Wandi said, adding that street performance was a way to attract such orders.
Waldi performs in a group of five or 12 people from one house to another in various residential areas in the city from around 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The number of people in a street performance group depends on the music used — 12 people are required for live music as there are six instruments to play and a pair of puppets to operate, while only five are needed if recorded music is used with only a single puppet to operate.
Recorded music has been a favorite choice among street performers since 2015. With a smaller number of people in the group, each person could make more money, Waldi said. One person in a group of five could earn an average of Rp 50,000 (US$4) a day, and less in a bigger group. They also cannot risk damaging the instruments when performing during the rainy season.
Waldi concurred that other changes, aside from the use of recorded music, could also be seen in the head of the puppets, once made out of wood and painted either red or white, it is now made of the lighter fiberglass and comes in various colors. However, he brushed off Asiantoro’s claim that the changes were not in line with cultural values as he said the changes aimed to tone down the ferocious image of ondel-ondel to promote it to children.
Waldi hoped the administration would give him and other street performers a place to stage their performances, such as at train stations, if the plan commenced.
Ahmad Suandi, 23, who has been performing ondel-ondel since he was in junior high school, echoed Waldi’s sentiment.
“We used to perform with instruments, but we are lacking people as many of our members are still students. So now only I play an instrument,” Ahmad said, adding that he played a violin-like instrument called a tehyan.
As his group is rarely invited to play at events, Ahmad said performing on the streets helped, though barely, make ends meet.
Betawi cultural expert Ridwan Saidi appreciated the administration’s plan to manage the ondel-ondel street performances. He said the measure was needed to ensure that people didn’t have the wrong perception of Betawi culture.
“Aside from nurturing them, the administration should also provide the street performers with areas in public places to help promote the culture, including among foreigners,” Ridwan said. (ars)
