As promised earlier, I’m continuing to write about this Emmy Awards TV drama. Not to bother anyone, just for documentation on the internet. Because I didn’t find a proper answer about this at the time, meanwhile, blogging was not yet popular at the time this series aired. So even though this is an old topic, I am writing it anyway for anyone who wants to know the truth about Indonesia. For clarity, I put it in pointers.

* The name and actor chosen for the Indonesian character are not good enough. They look more like Japanese than Indonesian. Only the President of Indonesia was acted by an Indonesian man named Ariono Suriawinata. The other by American-Japanese (Nelson Mashita as Minaldi, state interpreter) and American-German (Peter Kors as Rahmadi Sumahidjo Bambang, MP from Indonesia). Many Indonesians do not have a last name, although several ethnic groups do. My name, for example, does not have a last name although another Javanese does. The name Rahmadi Sumahidjo Bambang is unusual, because Bambang is the first name. So, it must be Bambang Rahmadi Sumahidjo or Bambang Sumahidjo Rahmadi. Minaldi awkwardly stated it as Batak whereas this Bambang name is clearly a Javanese name. I guess the scriptwriter of this episode was inspired by the name of a rich Indonesian man who owns a McDonalds franchise all over Indonesia. He is Bambang N. Rachmadi. Even the name of the President of Indonesia is Rahm Siguto! In addition to being influenced by this Indonesian McDonalds franchisee boss, the name showed that the president is perhaps half Japanese. (Siguto is not an Indonesian name at all, except they changed to Sugito, which is Javanese.)

* Although it only became background information, there are three scenes where Donna Moss – Joshua Lyman’s secretary – spread information about the massacre in Indonesia. Considering this year of making and broadcasting TV dramas in 1999, it should be Malang, Ciamis, and the surrounding incident. Yes, there were doubts in the Indonesian government agencies, including the police, to take appropriate and prompt action to enforce the law at that time. Because they are afraid of being accused by international organizations as an actor in violation of human rights. There are more than several victims who died because they were accused of being a witch. But one thing I want to emphasize here is that that incident only happened once and only on the island of Java. Indonesia as a nation has more than 700 ethnicities that can pose problems in your daily life due to their different culture and way of life. That incident does not happen every day in our country. We are peaceful people, indeed.

* There is a scene showing a photo shoot for the journalist from the presidential palace. I think it’s unusual to put your nation’s flag behind every leader. The usual way is to change position. So The Star & Stripes should be after the President of Indonesia while Sang Saka Merah Putih (The Sacred Red and White) is after the President of the USA.

* At any official state party, it is impossible for the host to abandon his guest. There is more than one scene where the US President is able to leave the party just by receiving information from his staff about the condition that happened outside the palace.

* The American audience doesn’t seem to care enough about all that Indonesian blunder. They put more attention on the Sam Seaborn scandal with Brittany ‘Laurie’ Rollins. For your information, in this TV drama, Brittany’s character is a friend of Sam’s. But those White House staff seemed to fall for her. The problem is Brittany’s ‘night job’ as a prostitute which has a negative image. In this episode, Sam appeared to be having lunch together with Brittany at which point Brittany told Sam that she had a “night job” that night. Surprisingly, Brittany’s ‘night job’ is escorting a big businessman to a White House party, when she meets Seaborn there. The American audience criticized that it is impossible for someone to enter the official party at the White House without a clear identity such as name, address and social security number. I don’t know about the White House procedure, but I agree that it seems too easy for people to get into the presidential palace. It can be dangerous for the president himself, of course.

However, I conclude in the same way that The Jakarta Post did: “anyway, this is just fiction.” But unfortunately, a fiction like this commonly influences people’s consciousness more because of the choice of ‘the right way’ to communicate the message itself. It is entertaining and audiovisual. Like Bush’s hoax that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Many American people believe because he communicates this false fact with the correct way of communication. And this is one of the negative impacts of the use of communication.