English Corner

The New Order Story [4] JS Badudu Throwed from TVRI

Kamis, 18 Februari 2021, 07:12 WIB

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The New Order Story [4] JS Badudu Throwed from TVRI

JS Badudu (Foto: Kompas/Kartono Riyadi)

Pepih Nugraha

Penulis senior

In the past, Jusuf Sjarif Badudu was very synonymous with "Siaran Pembinaan Bahasa Indonesia" (The Indonesian Language Guidance Broadcast) that he delivered on TVRI. JS Badudu's "personal branding" was so strong that it was difficult to separate his name from the cool program on this state-owned television station.

Then why did JS Badudu suddenly stop delivering Indonesian language guidance broadcasts and it was as if he had been "thrown" off the screen, the only one in Indonesia at that time?

A growing issue said that because in that program JS Badudu criticized the ending "kan" which should have been pronounced "kan", but by certain people (especially Soeharto), usually officials, it was pronounced "ken". "Mengatakan" becomes "mengataken".

At that time, no official changed the suffix "kan" to "ken" apart from President Soeharto. In fact, this "style of speech" became distinctive and only he himself. Other officials may feel uncomfortable about imitating the number one person in Indonesia.

When JS Badudu was permanently on hiatus from the TVRI screen, people were excited to speculate because Pak Harto wanted him to stop after being so "presumptuous" criticizing him. Harsh criticism and openness on the screen, without being straightforward, is typical of Gorontalo

Later, the eldest daughter of JS Badudu, Dharmayanti Francisca Badudu, denied the rumors that had been widespread that what her late father had said did not specifically refer to Pak Harto.
According to Dharmayanti, JS Badudu as a lecturer and Indonesian language expert, talking about common mistakes that are often said by the wider community, did not correct Suharto's words at all.

However, history records that the "disappearance" of JS Badudu from TVRI after loudly criticizing the use of the language used by President Soeharto at that time. Not long after, he never appeared again. The fact is like that.

Is this a coincidence because as her daughter said, the reason for stopping on TVRI was because she focused on her teaching place at Unpad? Also for reasons of being too tired to go back and forth between Bandung and Jakarta to take live pictures.

In 1994, when I attended a journalism training to become a journalist at Kompas Daily, the Indonesian teacher in class was JS Badudu who was deliberately brought in from Bandung on certain days. I've always enjoyed his lessons, especially the "Media Language" he brings.

Long before I attended journalism education in 1994, when I was a student I was already a journalist for a weekly published in Yogyakarta. In one of the initiatives I carried out in 1986, when I was just in my second year of studying at the Faculty of Communication Sciences Unpad, I interviewed JS Badudu at his residence in the Dago Atas area. Of course he was no longer "teaching" at TVRI at that time, because he had "bounced" from TVRI since 1979.

I am of course asking about the actual facts about his "bounce" from TVRI, is it true because he criticized Pak Harto's words that said the end "kan" became "ken"? JS Badudu was very careful in answering that question.

"Outside people develop rumors like that, but it is not," he said without elaborating. He preferred to be asked and explained about the development of Indonesian among young people at that time.

Likewise, when JS Badudu delivered Indonesian lessons at a special journalism training to become a journalist for Kompas Daily, I tried to remind him of the incident I had interviewed at his house 8 years earlier.

Incredible, JS Badudu still remembers it. "Oh, you are," he said.

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