Gundala's Lack of Fame Sign of Foreign Influence: Police Chief

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - During a speech in front of young officer candidates (Capaja), Indonesian National Police (Polri) Chief General Tito Karnavian expressed fears over the ever-increasing foreign influences adopted by Indonesians.

According to Tito, one evident example is the popularity of local superhero characters compared  to those from abroad, such as Indonesia’s Gundala compared to DC’s Batman or Marvel’s Superman.

Gundala, the son of thunder, is a fictional character created by Harya Suraminata that was originally published from 1969 to 1982. This character was adopted into a feature-length movie in 1981.

Tito expressed his delight as Gundala would be featured in cinemas again this year under the creative hands of known Indonesian director Joko Anwar. 

Read: Police Chief Aims to Increase the Number of Policewomen in 2019

“Who here knows Gundala?” asked Tito Karnavian to 781 officer candidates present in the event, which was responded by a small number of hands shown.

After complimenting one of the candidates who raised his hand, Police Chief Tito then asked the crowd whether they knew of fictional superhero characters such as Batman or Superman.

His latter question was met with more enthusiasm as many raised their hands to acknowledge the two foreign comic book characters.

“Our children are being fed with cultures and understandings on heroism that were not native to Indonesia but rather from Hollywood. And they are proud of that,” said Tito Karnavian.

EGI ADYATAMA