Suharto and the Last Supper Controversies

As it is displayed as the ‘Tempo’ magazine cover of a picture resembling da Vinci’s Last Supper illustrating Suharto (Indonesia’s second president) as ‘Jesus’ in the middle. This act has force the MBM Tempo Chief Editor Toriq Hadad to apologize to all the Christian community in respond of their protest to clarify that they did not have any intention to insult Christian community and promise that in the future they will be much more careful; as a further act, they have withdrawn all of the magazine issues for that period. As it is proven, religion has been a very sensitive issue no matter neither parts of them are being discussed or being displayed. It influences what people see, their characteristic, their culture, and many other things (Colzato, 2008).

Reflecting the sensitivity of people and what Tempo did, it is not very wise of them displaying such religious object upon a renowned magazine in Indonesia. Even though they didn’t mean to insult the community, some people might translate their intention differently as Jesus is being compared with Suharto (with a history of corruption who has not been completely solve until today and used to be the dictator leader for 32 years). This case makes many Indonesians angry toward Tempo and expresses their feeling through the Internet (Arief, 2008). These issues are often occurred in the field of media broadcasting; which, the media firm must be able to follow the existing regulations and rules before they publish something. The world is 99 percent populated by multi-racial countries, where people will brawl and mixed together regardless which ethnics they are in (BookRags, 2005) thus, it is very important to consider other people feeling, taught, culture, and believes before we did something that will cross the border. Framing also played an interesting role into the illustration. Framing connects or disconnects certain composites in a document. Framing an element will make readers pay more attention to that element. (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) Suharto is framed around by his family members who are all looking at him with ‘awe’ on their faces. This draws attention to Suharto making him appear important.

Importance element on a document is based on where the element is placed in the document.(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) Suharto placed in the middle of the cover, it make Suharto is the most important object on the cover, same with Jesus Christ on the original picture.

Reference:

ABC News 2008, Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover, viewed online on 12 June 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm

Arief 2008, Majalah Tempo Diminta Copot Cover Edisi Khusus Soeharto, viewed online on 12 June 2010, http://www.kompas-tv.com/content/view/465/2/

BookRags 2005, Multi-racial Society, viewed online on 12 June 2010, http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/26/6366/41166

Colzato, L 2008, ‘Religion influences what people see’, in Universiteit Leiden, viewed online on 12 June 2010, http://www.news.leiden.edu/news/religion-influences-what-people-see.html

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 1998. “Front pages: The critical analysis of newspaper layout”, in COMM 1033. (UNISA electronic library)