Forget jaded celebrities slumming it on the dance floor and illicit housemate sex: Indonesians are glued to reality TV programmes featuring the country’s most down-at-heel.
In shows captivating much of the nation, those scraping to get by daily in the world’s most populous Muslim country are hammered by fake debt collectors, offered the chance to go on an expenses-paid hajj trip to Saudi Arabia, or handed a thousand dollars to be spent immediately.
“I have never been in a car this luxurious,” gushed Nafisah, the lucky star in an episode of Bedah Rumah, or House Makeover, as she was shuttled to a plush hotel with her two children in a rather ordinary minivan.
Her family spent the next 12 hours dining and sipping cool drinks there while their old, dilapidated home was renovated and refurnished.
But that’s one of the more conventional shows.
In Lunas (Paid), an indebted person dobbed in by a friend is harassed by fake debt collectors who force the unsuspecting victim to sell televisions, bicycles or anything else they can manage to do without to clear their debt.
The amount they owe may be just a few hundred dollars.
The episode ends happily when the show’s host visits the debtor to tell him that his debt has been paid off — for free. The crew returns the proceeds from the sale of the belongings and replaces the sold items with sparkling new ones.
Meanwhile, one of the first of the shows to debut here, Uang Kaget, or Surprise Cash, features a shabbily-dressed person such as a rubbish collector struggling to spend 10-million rupiah (about $1 000) in half an hour. They cannot buy multiple items and any leftover cash is lost.
As the show’s contestant rushes frantically from one shop to another to buy things ranging from rice to washing machines, they are closely trailed by a TV crew, police guard and cheering crowd of spectators.
The man behind this show and many of those it has spawned, Helmy Yahya, stars in this one himself, roaming the streets in a large top hat, disguised by a black beard and moustache, to find a worthy recipient of the cash.
Everywhere he travels, people warmly greet him and the filming of an episode can attract thousands of onlookers, he says.
The show attracts huge audiences and triggered a battery of copycat programmes, which together attract millions of viewers.
Surprise Cash and House Makeover, aired weekly, were rated number two and three out of scores of reality TV programmes shown in December, easily trumping Indonesia’s version of the hit United States programme The Apprentice, according to media research firm AGB Nielsen.
While comical to some, the sometimes tear-jerking shows have left critics unimpressed. They accuse the producers of taking advantage of the poor and dumbing-down a complex issue.
“What the poor really need is not instant help but opportunities to get out of their difficulties in a rational way,” media observer Effendy Ghazali says.
In a country where around half of the 220-million people live on less than two dollars a day, such handouts will not help, he charges.
“We should not make people think that in their lives, there will always be samaritans to help them. This doesn’t help efforts to reduce poverty,” he said, adding that the shows are dressing up unbridled capitalism as charity.
Yahya, who has six of the charity shows under his belt and has also produced hit quiz programmes, says he is unfazed by the criticism, arguing that his programmes have provided inspiration to ordinary people to help others in need.
“We are not exploiting poverty. Everybody has dreams. Some people dream to be able to meet their idols, but others simply wish to have a decent house,” he says.
Yahya says the people appearing on his shows are carefully screened and selected on merit.
“We look for people who deserve the help, people who are exemplary in their communities. They are people who have shown perseverance despite hardships,” says the 42-year-old producer, who said he was himself born to a poor family.
Free Hajj Trip, for instance, was aimed at Muslims devoted to religious or social services who had no means to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the fifth pillar of Islam.
The trips are organised by the Indonesian government and normally cost a participant about $3 000.
One viewer, Ali Musa, praises the genre.
“This kind of programme motivates people to do good things, to help people and show compassion,” he says.
“I think that’s the spirit, even though I can’t deny that the producers seek profits. After all, they’re not Santa Claus.” – AFP