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View all search results'Loud, uneducated': Betawi natives portrayed negatively in media
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People flock the entrance to the Lebaran Betawi event at the National Monument area on July 20. (kompas.com/Vitorio Mantalean)
O
n big and small screens, the Betawi people, who make up the native ethnic group of Jakarta, are often portrayed as uneducated, loud rowdies with no manners.
The trope is so common in Indonesian cinemas or TV series that it has become a stereotype.
Hikmat Darmawan, the chairman of the Film Committee at the Jakarta Arts Council, said it was hard for him to enjoy watching recent movies depicting the Betawi culture, like the 2018 flick Benyamin Biang Kerok (Benyamin the Troublemaker), starring prominent actor Reza Rahardian. The movie was inspired by a movie of the same name released in the 1970s and featuring legendary Betawi actor Benyamin Sueb.
“The main character, Benyamin, and his family are Betawi. However, he acts like a clown, being exaggeratedly foolish and loud. It is so different from the real Betawi people I know and have grown up with,” he said at a seminar about negative stereotypes of the Betawi people in movies, adding that he had found similar clichés in a popular TV show called Lenong Rumpi.
Journalist and movie critic Ade Irwansyah said the Betawi history was closely connected with the negative stereotypes currently plaguing movies or TV series about Betawi culture.
“Betawi people are always depicted as a marginalized community that is technologically backward and ends up as a laughingstock,” Ade said.
He explained that the negative depiction of the Betawi people had begun in the era of silent movies, citing as an example the 1929 silent movie Njai Dasima, where all the antagonists are Betawi people.
