Changing Image of Heroes

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

The murals of Prince Diponegoro and Bung Tomo.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Millennials’ imaginations are filled with superheroes rather than national heroes. It is unsurprising, therefore, that their views are different from previous generations.

The millennial generation has their own image about what makes a hero. They no longer identify heroes with independence fighters, but people who struggle for welfare and truth.

Nevertheless, young people find it difficult to identify real heroes according to their ideal picture. Some mention national heroes while others mention popular figures widely known throughout the media. Still others mention superheroes of the movie industry.

The results of a Kompas research and development poll, conducted among pupils and students in 11 cities from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, indicate this phenomenon. The majority of respondents (81.6 percent) disagreed with the description of heroes as those who fought for Indonesia’s independence. Meanwhile, up to 51.8 percent of respondents believe heroes to be those who struggle to improve public welfare.

At least 39.5 percent of respondents regard heroes as those who fight for and defend truth. Only 4.6 percent of adolescents and youth link heroic values with the independence struggle.

Even though they have their own views about heroes and the values that make a hero, the respondents have difficulty naming figures they deem worthy of the title. At least 49.3 percent of respondents still name independence fighters at the top, followed by popular figures (33.6 percent), religious figures (9.6 percent) and finally, fictional figures like superheroes (3.5 percent)

Superheroes

Aside from the survey, Kompas also met several young people to ask them to tell the stories they remembered about national heroes. However, most of them found this challenging. Risa, a university student in Serang, Banter, for example, could only name 10 national heroes in 1 minute, including Cut Nyak Dien, Dewi Sartika, R.A. Kartini and Soekarno. However, she was unsure about her responses and asked for permission to check them using the Google search engine.

She later said that Cut Nyak Dien was a hero from Aceh. However, she did not know Dewi Sartika’s birthplace. ”After graduating from junior high school, I rarely read history books. However, I can tell stories about Bung Karno and R.A. Kartini because I happened to watch films about the two figures,” said Risa.

Kintan Kiranafiola, a management student at Jakarta Open University’s Economics School, named Pattimura, R.A. Kartini, Cut Nyak Dien and Imam Bonjol in 1 minute. After that, she frowned and was unable to name other national heroes.

Her face brightened immediately upon being asked to name superheroes. Without hesitation, she named several such figures like Superman, Spider-man, Batman and Ant-man.

Revan Pasha Kautharnadhif, a 12th grader at SMA Negeri 7 Jakarta state senior high school, was able to name 13 national heroes in 1 minute, including Gen. Gatot Soebroto, W.R. Supratman, Fatmawati and Pattimura. Meanwhile, he was able to name 21 superheroes, including Gatotkaca, the Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Quicksilver, Green Lantern and Thor, and two mythical heroes, Hercules and Poseidon. He admitted he recalled Pattimura because of the image printed on the Rp 1,000 note. He also recalled W.R. Supratman and R.A. Kartini because he had watched the films and wrote a report on their biography as a classroom assignment.

Distant history

The young people admitted they had difficulty recalling national heroes because they lived in a different era. Dewa Dayana, a philosophy student at the University of Indonesia’s Cultural Studies School, said it was easier to remember the names of superheroes because they appeared in films, comics and other contemporary media. Even though they were fictional, they seemed to be real and even had origin stories.

Popular culture and media observer Idi Subandy was not surprised that the young people’s imaginations were filled with superheroes rather than national ones. In his 2001 study on the representation of idols among the younger generation, he found that heroic idols that were “bearers of traditional values” such as teachers, religious figures and elders had been replaced by popular idols that were “bearers of post-modern values”, such as artists, celebrities, politicians and intellectuals. Other idols were fictional heroes or those that appeared in works of fiction.

“This shows that the idols or heroes known to young people are those of mass culture,” he said.

Idi suggested that the imagination of young people urgently needed to be filled with the narratives of the nation’s heroes to prevent their imagination being hegemonized or homogenized by the mass market. (TRI/TIA/BSW/DEW-LITBANGKOMPAS/**)