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Article Excerpt
In the first installment of this two-part research note (Postill 2001), I retraced the early history of modern Iban media production in Sarawak from 1954 to 1976. I stressed the centrality of the Iban language to Radio Sarawak broadcasters and Borneo Literature Bureau (BLB) authors in their struggle to preserve and modernize the Iban heritage. This ethnonationalist project was to be crippled in 1977 when the Malaysian government closed down the BLB and brought in Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, a federal agency in charge of promoting the national language. In what follows I cover a second phase of Iban media production, from 1977 to 1997--the year of a region-wide financial crisis whose consequences for Sarawak media are still to be evaluated. This second phase would witness a growing Malaysianization of the media in Sarawak, with television replacing radio as the staple of evening entertainment in both urban and rural areas. At the same time, the town of Sibu replaced the Saribas basin as the twin heartland, with Kuching, of an expanding Iban culture industry. I discuss the consequences of this shift below (see also Postill 2002b). Meanwhile, Kuching remained the capitol of official, elite-driven Iban culture.
Radio
With the demise of the BLB and the rapid spread of Malay-language rural schools and television, the Iban Section of Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) was the sole Iban-language medium of any import remaining in the 1980s. In 1980, after the communist threat had been finally quelled, the Psychological Warfare Unit at RTM was dissolved. The main focus at the Iban Section was then the phasing out of slash-and-burn hill rice farming to give way to "modern" agricultural practices. Interviews with successful cash crop farmers were a preferred method of persuasion. Other important areas were health, education, poverty and job vacancies. The purported aim was to change the rural population's conservative "mind-set." Meanwhile, the Iban component of school broadcasting was undergoing fundamental changes. In the place of Michael Buma's spelling, dictation and traditional tales (ensera), more elaborate grammar-based Iban language lessons were now being broadcast to primary and lower secondary pupils. (1) This improvement must be set, however, against a far more transcendent 1980s shift: the establishment of Malay as the sole medium of instruction across the state school system in the place of English. Both these changes were the consequence of the extension of the Education Act of 1976 to Sarawak, which required the creation of new school syllabi set according to Ministry of Education guidelines. A further expansion in airtime at RTM occurred in the early 1980s with the launching of Sunday programs in Iban and two more hours in the evening from Monday to Saturday. The next increase was to arrive a decade later, with two more hours in the morning. Henceforth the total airtime would be set at 66 hours a week, with 9 hours a day from Monday to Saturday and 12 hours on Sundays. In 1993 new studios were built and modern equipment acquired. Two years later, some important changes in programming took place. First, the soap operas (cherita kelulu) were discontinued. According to the producer Laja Sanggin, this was due both to the low quality of the scripts submitted and to the Iban Section's lack of manpower. At least some Iban writers disagree, saying it was due to the frequent transfer of producers and other staff, so that they ceased to call for scripts. Second, "loose slots" were introduced from 6 to 8:30 pm whose aim was to both inform and entertain the audience with varied capsules lasting 2 to 3 minutes instead of the accustomed 15 to 30 minutes. Some of these capsules were aimed at a young audience. Messages on the evils of truancy, loafing, drugs, etc., were "injected" (see below) to this group in between the pop songs. Another novelty was to open the lines to telephone callers with messages for their migrant kin on grave matters such as illness, death or financial hardship (jaku pesan berat). Callers could now also take part in a new program called Nama Runding? ('What do you think?') in which they could express their views on a given topical issue within the strict limits imposed by the Malaysian state, that is, avoiding any direct reference to ethnic inequalities, land issues, or Islam. These programming changes were both a response to perceived changes in the wider society (especially a stiffer competition from television and private radio stations, the rural-urban drift, a rise in educational standards, etc.) and a consequence of a lack of financial and human resources to produce new programs. As a result, the more "traditional" programs such as Main Asal ('Traditional Music') were relegated to what in rural Sarawak is considered to be a very late slot: from 10:15 pm to 11 pm. (2)
In 1997 Sarawak's first privately-owned commercial radio station, CATS (3) Radio, was launched. Its mission was to capture a wide audience across the state through "light entertainment," especially music. It had an Iban Section run by an RTM veteran and former intelligence officer, Roland Duncan Klabu, transmitting two hours a day: from 1 to 2 pm Monday to Friday, from 3 to 4 on Sunday and from midnight to 1 am seven days a week. To maximize his one-hour afternoon slot, Klabu opted for the "hot-clock system," consisting of a five-minute news bulletin and a motley of capsules, Iban pop songs, local reports, farming tips and suchlike. He made no bones about the true purpose of these broadcasts. The program, he explained, was "literally bought by a number of record companies seeking to promote Iban pop songs throughout Sarawak" (Klabu 1998:2). The most prominent figure to emerge was undoubtedly Peter John anak Apai, (4) an Iban DJ who became hugely popular overnight with his personal brand of daft humor and ability to communicate on air with callers from all walks of life. Peter John was an inveterate connector of two disparate yet overlapping worlds: rural and urban Iban life. CATS offered an amusing, hybrid alternative to a more sober RTM Iban service. Also, its crystal clear FM sound made listening a more pleasurable experience than RTM's crackling short wave transmission.
Peter John notwithstanding, Iban-language broadcasting was caught up in a wider social and political malaise. Educated Iban felt that the crisis of the Iban Section reflected both the erosion and eventual demise of the Iban language and culture. With this bleak prognosis in mind and a sense of urgency, in April 1998 the Council for Customary Law (Majlis Adat Istiadat) in Kuching ran a one-day workshop on the current situation and future prospects of Iban-language broadcasting. The workshop, which I was fortunate to co-organize, was held almost entirely in the Iban language, a rare event in Kuching (5). The morning session was led by Empeni Lang, Chief Registrar of the Native Court. It was devoted to identifying the key problems besetting Iban-language broadcasting. Perhaps inevitably, most of the subsequent discussions centered on the Iban Section at RTM to the detriment of CATS and BTP (School Broadcasting). The following 15 key RTM problems were identified and summarized by the workshop facilitator:
1. No clear aims or objectives. (6)
2. Insufficient audience research. (7)
3. Not enough manpower. (8)
4. Not enough money. (9)
5. No code of ethics. (10)
6. Poor infrastructure and facilities. (11)
7. No supporting prim media. (12)
8. No full-time women employees. (13)
9. Poor quality of transmission. (14)
10. Low command of Iban among broadcasters. (15)
11. Unpleasant voices. (16)
12. Programs not properly edited.
13. Less traditional programs than before.
14. Low levels of professionalism.
15. Flawed recruitment process. (17)
In addition, the following concerns about the Iban Section were voiced during the workshop or in private conversations elsewhere:
1. External interferences, both from Iban and Peninsular political quarters. (18)
2. Poor leadership within the Iban Section.
3. Too many phone-in programs replacing the forums, dramas, magazines and features of previous decades.
4. Growing competition from CATS, other commercial radio stations from West Malaysia, television, etc.
5. Some programs broadcast too late for rural audiences.
6. No programs for women (cf. no. 8 above).
7. No programs for children and teenagers.
8. As a result of all the above: a highly demoralized staff.
Although pushed to the margins of the workshop discussions, we should also mention the other two branches of Iban-language broadcasting: School Broadcasting and CATS Radio. School Broadcasting (renamed Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan [BTP]) is also facing an uphill struggle. The excitement of the early years surrounding the educational possibilities of radio has turned into bitter disappointment. For one thing, few schools in the urban areas teach Iban. In Kuching there is but one school, St. Mary's Secondary School, still teaching this language. Elsewhere, out of the 600 to 650 primary schools in Sarawak with over 50% Iban pupils, only 40% currently listen to the Iban programs. (19) A BTP survey listed the following factors to account for this low figure:
1. Programs hard to fit into the exam-oriented, textbook-based school syllabus.
2. Poor reception in many "shadow areas."
3. No Iban language teacher in the school.
4. Radio set out of order (Untie 1998: 4).
Finally, CATS has also come under attack since its launching for some of its presenters' low level of competence in the Iban language. One rumor had it that one of them, who had never experienced longhouse life, (20) was relieved from her newsreading duties following complaints from listeners. To compound matters, this station's Iban programs were often seen as a mere channel for the Chinese-dominated Iban music industry of Sibu, as Klabu himself recognized.
In the afternoon, the workshop participants sought practical solutions to the problems identified. In the end, they adopted 12 resolutions that generally followed from the enunciation of the problems, e.g. the need for clear objectives, a more balanced programming, better training, etc. One interesting suggestion that went beyond the purview of the workshop was the need to create an official body to strengthen the Iban language through standardization, research and other means.
The history of Iban-language broadcasting is therefore long and eventful. For decades it has not only served the government of the day with unflagging loyalty but has also contributed, in some measure, to the standardization and preservation of the Iban language and culture across Sarawak. The Iban Section of Radio Sarawak (now RTM) has served the state well: it fought Indonesia in the 1960s, the communists in the 1970s and what the state defined as the (backward) "rural mind-set" from the 1980s onwards. At present, however, the state has other priorities. Among the most pressing of these is to build a strong, unified national culture based on the Malay language and traditions. The host of problems affecting all three Iban-language radio organizations (RTM, CATS and BTP) can all be linked to a chronic weakness: the lack of adequate political representation of the Iban and other non-Muslim indigenous groups (Jawan 1994:226-235).
There is, however, a more...
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