A leading Indonesian magazine has apologised to Christians for depicting former President Suharto and his family of mimicking the Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper portrait in the magazine cover. Christian activists visited Tempo’s cover showed a sketch of Suharto, who died at 86 month, sitting at a table surrounded by his children in a parody of the last meal Jesus had with his disciples as depicted in Da Vinci’s painting.
Christian activists visited Tempo’s building, to protest on the cover of the Suharto. They were offended as the Tempo magazine compared it between Suharto to Jesus.
"For anything unseemly related to the publication of the cover, I, on behalf of the Tempo group, apologise," the magazine's chief editor, Toriq Hadad, said in a statement run on its Web site, www.tempointeraktif.com. (www.abc.net.au). Later, He said the image, used to illustrate a cover story titled "After He is Gone," was inspired by Da Vinci's painting and was not intended to refer to a biblical event.
(The Last Supper Suharto Cover)
(Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper)
WHY?
The intent to portray Suharto as Jesus Christ was, because Suharto had brought economic stability to Indonesia during his administration. But, this did not go well with the Christians. It led to a dozen representatives of several Christian groups as well as inter-religious organizations converged. Therefore, the Christians protest outside the Tempo building for an answer.
According to Haynes (Michael, 2007) what exactly is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people.
The picture created issues due to cultural differences. This is due to the misunderstanding of links between the composition of Leonardo’s painting, and the concept or context of the event told in the holy bible.
It was not ethical at all to post such a picture as the cultural difference is not respected. Also, “The exploitation of religious themes or persons for the selling of products. Surperficiality and bad taste entertainment and the internationalization of ‘values of the secularized society’ are equally, negatively judged.”(Feijter, p. 159, 2008)
My Opinion!
Why Tempo choose the potrait of the Jesus Christ Last supper. In my personal opinion, I think it was so some of free advertisement, to know that what had the Suharto done, and who is Suharto actually.
References
Feijter, 1.2008, ‘The Art of Dialogue: Religion, Communication and Global Media Culture.’
Viewed 13 November 2008.
Michael.M 2007, ‘Freedom of Religion Confronts Journalism’, Viewed 13 November 2008
Michael.M 2007, ‘Freedom of Religion Confronts Journalism’, Viewed 13 November 2008
<http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/03/26/News/Freedom.Of.Religion.Confronts.Journalism-2791570-page2.shtml‘Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover’ 2008, ABC.net, viewed on 11 November 2008,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.html
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