The Tanoe Concerto
Fans of JKT48 are disappointed that Sunday’s much anticipated JKT48 Mega Konser on RCTI was briefly interrupted by breaking news on Indonesian politics. While the two events may seem unrelated, the subject of the story, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, in reality can be an important figure for the group’s future success.
Tanoesoedibjo is the the chairman and chief executive officer of Media Nusantara Citra (MNC), the media conglomerate backing the Indonesian arm of Yasushi Akimoto’s AKB48 business empire. MNC is the largest media company in the country, and JKT48 owes much of its success in reaching the general population to the conglomerate’s business network. Evidence of the company’s support can be seen in the breadth of subsidiaries which support JKT48 activities, including:
• RCTI, MNC’s flagship television station which airs the JKT48 Mega Konser;
• Global TV, one of MNC’s other television stations which broadcast JKT48’s debut performance;
• Rakuten–MNC, a joint venture with Japanese electronic commerce company Rakuten which runs the JKT48 Official Online Shop; and
• Hits Records, which recently produced JKT48’s debut singles and album.
RCTI was in a way obligated to broadcast the breaking news on its parent company’s owner. In the broadcast, Tanoesoedibjo announced that is he joining the political party Hanura – currently the smallest opposition party in parliament – after a disagreement with the leadership of his previous party. It is also interesting to note that Tanoesoedibjo is establishing a new mass organization next week which would be “empowered by young people”. His interest in engaging Indonesian youth is also the reason for the split with his previous party.
The large majority of JKT48’s fan base in Indonesia are teenagers and young adults, the perfect audience for Tanoesoedibjo’s organization. It is not unreasonable to imagine that the timing of the announcement was purposely chosen during the broadcast of JKT48 Mega Konser, when many young people would be watching.
While it is inaccurate to say that JKT48 has become a political vehicle, Tanoesoedibjo has placed the weight of his conglomerate behind the group in the hopes of expanding the business model that gave MNC its broad reach in the Indonesian population. If he indeed intends to expand his audience, then it is likely JKT48 will also see increased attempts to attract a broader fan base.
thanks for today show now my view to HT is change …..
Yes, this is the kind of article I hope for in this website, unlike that “three year proposal” stuff :p
Quite deep, objective, and unbiased. Thank you!
As for my opinion, I think the whole concert is purposely conducted for the announcement. Why?
– The name of the concert: Konser JKT48 Warnai Harimu. Hari? Hary?
– The color of the new seifuku: gold (yellow) for team J and silver (white) for 2nd gen kenkyuusei. Matches the party’s main colors
– The color of the album’s background: yellow (A) and white (B).
Well, what do you guys think about the coincidence? Conclude it yourselves.
Hanura’s main colour was more like orange or something though.
Jokes I found on twitter : #JKT48WarnaiHarimu hashtag was being played as #JKT48WarnaiHaryTanoe
There was some inside joke My friends and I said back when Tanoesoedibjo was still in Nasional Demokrat, which was “There would come the time when JKT48 would sing Nasional Demokrat’s Anthem and wear Orange and Blue – themed school uniform”. While the joke was outdated when Tanoe resigned from his post in Nasional Demokrat, we could say now “There will come the time when JKT48 will release merchandises and photos of them wearing Hanura’s jacket or something”.
Most of JKT48’s fans themselves are – let me say- fanatic and zealous towards JKT48. By the time 2014 General Election come (The Indonesian one, not the AKB one) Hanura may gain more voters from the so called young people, especially JKT48 fans. It may happen if Tanoe can maximise JKT48 as Hanura’s icon in ads or else. I’m pretty sure, those fanatics fans (NOT ALL) might vote Hanura, seeing their idols advertising the party.
But then again, I don’t know much about politics and those all my words are just some rambles.
Pardon my bad English
That was a nice insight Red-san. However, in my view, such thing won’t contribute much to 2014 election. In fact, it could be a backfire for HT and Hanura because most fans, if not all, is annoyed with the so-so breaking news. I think MNC should be careful in playing their politics here, since I consider the breaking news as a political blunder. I would say that the way they do to promote HT is way too obvious. Even those who see it at a glance can easily understood that it’s not a news at all, but rather a campaign. I’m not sure many will sympathize towards the party
For myself, even though JKT48 promoted Hanura, it won’t make me choose the party. It even worsen my view about Indonesian politics, and strengthened my will to go “white” when the election comes. Unless some great leader appeared that is.
and in few more months, we will see JKT girls singing Hanura’s anthem
Mike Mohede already done that with democrap..
I try to make it as brief as possible.
I have no problem with Hary as a person, a media mogul, or with his current interests to involve in politics. In fact, I favor him more than some other political players, including Surya Paloh – his previous political partner. But perhaps there are more truth than we imagined in Surya Paloh’s statement about Hary Tanoe as an ‘ambitious young figure’. And it is such ambition that can lead him to his early fall, both in business and politics.
Hary is a new player in politics. By experience and performance level he is still a Kenkyuusei compared to other players. Yet, he is not a super Kenkyuusei with proven capability in singing, dancing and MC-ing. What he have is a face (media), ‘enough’ capital to back him up, and ambition. Even if those three (face, capital, ambition), can help him to enter Senbatsu it is the the other three (singing, dancing, MC-ing) performance capabilities that can ensure his survival up there. If he ever make any mistake, that will be an instant fall. IMO, he should spend some more time to learn from his senpai, and choose the right senpai he can learn from.
I put the word ‘enough’ in quotation marks for a purpose: there are no clear line for ‘enough’ when it comes to how much capital needed to bet in political game. Other players have far more strong and solid capital base compared to his media empire. In this game of endurance, I doubt if media empires can compete well. They are like sprinter trying to win a marathon. Even Surya Paloh with far more tenure and experience in such poltics-media-capital game did it very carefully and only burst forward in certain times.
Or perhaps it is his ‘sprinter’ thingies that drive him into taking this move – careless move, IMHO. And he put JKT48 in his bet. He is hoping to fish some instant large support from JKT48 fans : some (majority) fans might be fool enough to get into his net. Other fans and new fans might reluctantly and carefully take some bite, being wary of the possibility of hidden content.
JKT48 and JKT48 fandom has just entered the 3rd phase of their beginning. The 1st phase was marked by 1st Gen struggle for recognition and for acknowledgement as something unique and original – not just another copycat. The 2nd phase was marked by the advent of 2nd Gen and team Kaigai, a quests for quality on their own theatre ground. In this 3rd phase, their challenge will be the effects of their booming popularity. Many outside predators being aware of their potential power will try to have their hands on them, some other who are feel threatened will react, some paracytes will try to take a bite of their skins, some others will try to infect and dwell in their bellies. They are young, and far behind in experience compared to AKB48, but they have to deal with challenges that AKB48 haven’t seen before. In Indonesia, everything can easily mixed up. It is almost impossible to see it as purely entertainment, purely business, purely something. Prepare for some other weird things around.
And these struggle, those dreams are not only members’ and kenkyuusei’s struggle and dreams. It is our struggle and dreams too, the fans of JKT48.
“You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people sometime.. but you can’t fool ALL of the people ALL the time..” (Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865))
there is no coincidence in polis**t..
everything is already arranged from the beginning.. even akimoto (perhaps) already knew it..
their purity is to precious to be stain by polis**t..
but.. although me know this since the beginning, me prefer to fool me self
sometimes, something is better left unknown
i just hope that jkt48 won’t be involved in any political reason, it would be really bad for fans. somehow, jkt48 only become a tool for gaining mass and voter, T,T
In Bahasa we just say “Kutu Loncat” instead. Sorry, Mr. Tanoe, we only want entertaiments. No political pieces of shi*! Me? I’ll stick with my “Golput”. (Man! They’re just kids, even some of them haven’t out of their sixteens. Dammit man! Someone has to do something about this.)
OK. I can have many knowledge about your country’s politics. But I tyr to enjoy that concert. Especially, I was surprised to find some female fans just in front of the stage and some babies(perhaps with parents). The popularity of JKT48 has already achieved that line! If so, I am so happy to encourage JKT48 more!
Believe me, man. You DON’T want to know about our politics.
HERMAN san. Do you mean I have not yet known politics in Indonesia? If so, it is collect. I just knew a little bit about Mr. Tanoe. That’s all. The things I want to say are that I have been trying to enjoy JKT48’s progress:)
Way to go,man! That’d be better. No Politic, no worry.
it is tiring to talk about politics.
lets go to the theater btw…
ahh… there is info that ontheSpot in trans7 will be showing fact about JKT48.
wonder when it is… they said Thursday tomorrow.
Breaking news, really? I don’t see this is considered a ‘breaking news’ unless our country all of sudden being invaded by aliens, other countries or something but this ‘breaking news?’ crap is just silly. Congratulations thought if you think JKT youth fans are gonna vote or anything else cause you’ll get otherwise, you just annoyed like tons of population of JKT fans that watching the LIVE show of a Mega Concert. I’m not gonna be a hypocrite here but maybe without this person we won’t see JKT on their shows and anything. I just regret why the ‘tender’ of business cooperation doesn’t land on a better, professionally managed corporation like Tra*sCorp which the owner doesn’t affiliated to anything related to politics. Yes I saw many mentions like that if once JKT aired in there. But, JKT will be rare to appear on regular daily show, Dahsyat, where JKT often performs which is a sad thing for fans that couldn’t attend the theater or any other events.
Well everything has its pros – cons but I’ll just keep it real here, since this is Indonesia where things can goes very unexpected. Do not use JKT so much as a political ride, or you might lost that what you wanted, ‘youth generation’.
Sorry for incorrect grammar, punctuation and spelling.