Video Archive: Television Program, Indonesia
University of Hawaii at Manoa
About MQTV
With the passing of the Regional Autonomy Law (Law No 22/1999) and the Regional Fiscal Law (Law No 25/1999), both enacted on 2 January 2001, many people in Indonesia believed that a new era of prosperity was beckoning.
Suddenly, each province in Indonesia would be allowed to determine its own economic direction with less intervention from Jakarta. For the first time, the authority and responsibility to control economic resources and activities shifted from center to region. These two laws opened opportunities for people who live outside Jakarta to establish local television stations. In addition, when President Abdul Rahman Wahid disbanded the Ministry of Information in October 1999, which controlled licenses for any mass media operations, permission was no longer needed from Jakarta.
Within a short period after the enactment of the two laws, hundreds of local television stations were established all over Indonesia. Some died very quickly, some survive until today, but only very few became popular beyond their provincial boundaries. Among the surviving ones is Management Qolbu Television (MQTV), which has become very popular all over Indonesia. It was established in 2003 in the city of Bandung, West Java, under the umbrella of Manajemen Qolbu Corporation (MQ Corp). MQTV started as a house production and since 2006 it has its own station. It offers a variety of programs, drama, comedy, animation, and interactive talk shows to mention just a few, aimed at different age groups. What enables MQTV to survive is the combination of its use of Islam Indonesia as the main spice for its programs and its very sophisticated marketing. For several years, MQTV had one central figure, Abdullah Gymnastiar (popularly known in Indonesia as Aa Gym). Today there are a few individuals within the corporation who are ready to assume the central role if necessary. One of them is Dudung Abdul Ghany, who is not only the Executive Director of MQTV but also one of talk show hosts.
Who is Aa Gym? He is not only the Chief Executive of the Manajemen Qolbu Corporation (the parent company of MQTV), but he is also the host of MQTV's most popular programs. An article entitled “A Popular Indonesian Preacher: The Significance of Aa Gymnastiar” (C.W. Watson, 2005) provides comprehensive background and analysis about both the corporation and its most central individual, Aa Gym. A byline in The New York Times entitled “A TV Preacher to Satisfy the Taste for Islam Lite” (Jane Perlez, 23 August 2002) and an article in Time magazine entitled “A Holy Man” (Simon Elegant and Jason Tedjakusuma, 4 November 2002) provide journalistic view points on this Indonesian Muslim preacher cum businessman.
A master's thesis from Australian National University entitled Workshop of Morality: The Islamic Creativity of Pesantren Daarut Tauhid in Bandung, Java (Dindin Solahudin, 1996) presents a closer look into Pesantren Daarut Tauhid, one of the business entities of the MQ Corporation.
MQ Corporation consists of several businesses. It has a pesantren (Islamic based school) called Daarut Tauhid, a supermarket, a travel agency, a guest house, learning centers where different subjects including foreign languages are offered, laundry and cleaning facilities, photography services, a pharmacy, and several other establishments providing a variety of services and merchandises from headscarves to bottled water all bearing MQ logos. When I visited the compound in February 2007, I leaned that a new pesantren, to be called Eco Pesantren, is being established where students not only could pursue knowledge in all kinds of subjects (science, social science, humanities, and Islamic teachings) but they could also practice self-sustained agricultural lifestyle. A brand new recording studio equipped with a state of the art sound system has just been completed. My pre-conceptions about successful Muslim businessmen were challenged when I met the Executive Director (Dudung Abdul Ghany), the Director (Eka Budiman Sumadji) and their Information Technology staff. No Armani suits, no white long robs. They are young devoted Muslim men who wear “normal” clothes (some wear flannel shirts over their Polo t-shirts) and are really good at what they are doing.
Kebun Hikmah: The Garden of Wisdom. This program is syndicated nationally and internationally (Malaysia and Singapore). In the program, Aa Gym is accompanied by a co-host, who reads verses from the Koran and/or Hadith (a collection of stories relating words or deeds of Prophet Mohammad) pertaining to the subjects of the day. Audience members are given the opportunity to ask questions about life and get answers from the host. What makes it interesting is that the questions reveal the common concerns and desires of average Indonesian people across religious, ethnic, and regional boundaries.
Salma: Salma is a drama series. Salma, the central figure of the story, has to deal with marital problems similar to those anywhere in the world. She is a teacher and a single mother, who has to deal with her estranged husband, who has taken up a second wife. The drama is not only about polygamy in Indonesia, but also about the pressure that a woman has to endure for being legally married but without the presence of the husband. What is fresh in the drama is the character of Salma. She deconstructs the stereotypical image of the miserable, weak and lonely divorced Indonesian woman.
Keluarga Senyum: Smiling Family. This is a family situational comedy. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Salam is very respectable in their village. They always smile thus earning them the nickname of the smiling family. Like most situational comedy programs, it is critical. The dialog, which is a mix of Sundanese (the vernacular language of West Java) and Indonesian languages, is critical toward the local government of West Java, the Indonesian government, and conditions in Indonesia in general.
About the Copyrights
MQTV granted rights to the Southeast Asia Digital Library (http://sea.lib.niu.edu) to digitize and to provide free access to these programs under the fair use law. The rights of the images remain with MQTV and it is illegal to reproduce images through this site for commercial distribution of any kind. Users must acknowledge Southeast Asia Digital Library as the source. Images must be cited following the standard citation for such material.
References
- The Republic of Indonesia. Regional Autonomy Law (Law No 22/1999)
- The Republic of Indonesia. Regional Fiscal Law (Law No 25/1999)
- Watson, C.W. A Popular Indonesian Preacher: The Significance of Aa Gymnastiar. Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S). 11 (2005): 773-792.
- Perles, Jane. A TV Preacher to Satisfy the Taste for Islam Lite. The New York Times. 23 August 2002
- Elegant, Simon and Jason Tedjakusuma. A Holy Man. Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501021111-386977,00.html (accessed 9/14/2007)
- Solahuddin, Dindin. 1996. Workshop of Morality: The Islamic Creativity of Pesantren Daarut Tauhid In Bandung, Java. Australian National University. Master Thesis
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