The Mentality of the “Children of Development Policy” as Reflected by the Indonesian Best Seller Pop Novel Series <i>LUPUS</i>

Abstract

The LUPUS Series is a serial Indonesian pop novel which has enjoyed great popularity since the mid-1980's, especially among urban middle class teenagers. The series, which is the only million-seller in the history of the Indonesian publishing industry, takes the form of collections of episodes in the life of a Jakartan high school boy, Lupus, and his friends. This paper attempt to analyze LUPUS, with particular attention to its text and to its mid-80's popularity, in order to demonstrate its value as an important document of the emerging “anak hasil pembangunan” (literally, “children of development policy”, a term describing the younger generation that was born and grew up during, and who benefitted economically from, the Soeharto's regime, who was called the “Father of Development”)Lupus and his friends are not presented as typical heroes, as is the case of other major Indonesian pop novels; instead, they are set forth as common urban middle class youth who naturally enjoy an environment which provides them with endless opportunities to sample newproducts or access new information that would hitherto have been unavailable to them.The series exhibits an unprecedented style, the unique features of which deeply involve the reader in the text. First and foremost, the series is written in the colloquial slang of Jakartan youth, this is thecase not only for the dialogue, but also for the narration. The result is direct contact with readers, so that they are made to feel that they are not just simply reading, but also “hearing” the story, thus readers are drawn into the novel, and get involved as participants in the events.The other unique feature of LUPUS is the intentional and public identification of the author, Hilman, with his creation, Lupus, infusingthe novel with something of a sense of reality in the minds of its readers.Historically, the “anak hasil pembangunan”, having spent their formative years under the control of Soeharto's regime, have had less opportunity to find their identity in the socio-political context; in this sense, they differ from the previous generations.On the other hand, this younger generation came to find itself in a role which identified its members in the socio-economic context, primarily as potential consumers; that is, targets of expanding commercialism and globalization. The character of this generation came to be identified not in terms of their socio-political role, but rather in the context of their particular youth culture, a culture born from economic development and totally exclusive of those who cannot meet the socio-economic requirements for membership.LUPUS reflects precisely the ambivalence inherent in the condition of the “anak hasil pembangunan”, and has attracted their attention, resulting in an increased consciousness of self image not bound to the socio-political context.It can also be argued that the popularity of LUPUS, which is rivaled by no other Indonesian print entertainment of the New Order period, provided this generation with a sense of belonging to the “imagined community”, and made up for the absence of shared experience on a national scale.