The Art of “Criticizing” with a Smile

Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo

The "50 Years of Testimony of Om Pasikom" exhibition at Bentara Budaya Jakarta (BBJ) in Jakarta on Tuesday (9/5). The exhibition features 130 works of GM Sudarta from 1967 to 2017.

The front page of Kompas, July 21, 1967, featured a caricature of a figure dressed in a suit bearing the phrases “corruptor, robber, smuggler” on its tummy. The figure’s head was drawn as a fist. The following day, a panzer came to the office of Kompas. Four sturdy men questioned the meaning of the cartoon.

Such a traumatic experience stayed in the mind of cartoonist Gerardus Mayella Sudarta. His idea to draw crimes, which haunted society, triggered misunderstanding from certain groups.