Abstract
Abstract This article sheds light on previously unknown aspects of Indonesian private television by focusing on the role of the ethno-religious minority of Indonesian Sindhi in the establishment and development of commercial soap opera production. Part of the global trading community of Sindhayat, the local Sindhis have mobilized their translocal and transnational networks to take a dominant position in the emerging sector of national media. Grounded in long-term ethnographic fieldwork among media practitioners and Indonesian Sindhi community members, the article examines how Sindhis’ sense of community and shared desires and sentiments have resulted in a lack of variety of television formats and the introduction of Islam-themed soap operas to prime-time television.
Highlights
National television is as complex as the nation it represents, and Indonesia is no exception
I argue that the impact of Indonesian Sindhi businessmen on the Indonesian television industry can only be understood in the context of translocal and transnational networks, which link Sindhis residing in Indonesia with the Sindhayat, a community with a rich history in global trade
I argued that the contribution of Sindhis to national television can only be understood in the broader context of global networks and community business practices
Summary
National television is as complex as the nation it represents, and Indonesia is no exception. The Indonesian Sindhi community had nothing to do with the liberalization of Indonesian television in the late 1980s—an act of political despair that aimed to regain the audience, which was rapidly slipping away from state control due to technological advances such as video, spillover transmission, and transnational satellite (Sen 1994; Kitley 2000)—Sindhi businessmen played a major role in establishing a separate, economically significant, media industry sector: the production of commercial soap operas, or sinetron The creation of this niche became possible due to the Sindhi community’s access to a global pool of financial and human resources. In Sindhi-owned studios, these positions were taken by experienced traders, who saw themselves in an entertainment business serving the tastes of the audience Both the local and global connections of Indonesian Sindhis have played a significant role in establishing content production as an important sector of the national television industry in Indonesia. 18 For a discussion of the organizational structure of a production house owned by a nonSindhi-Indonesian actor-turned-producer Rano Karno—see Loven 2008
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