The Khong Guan biscuit tin is absolutely iconic in Indonesia, not just because they remain an ubiquitous sight from most people’s childhoods but also because of the mystery implied by its central image of a mother sitting at the table enjoying the cookies with her two children: where’s the dad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilsLg5mMgRs
That mystery has been the sources of endless debate and countless memes (Vice Indonesia did a great overview of all the speculation surrounding the biscuit tin and even got an answer directly from the image’s artist himself). But a video posted today is currently going viral for providing its own politicized answer to the Khong Guan controversy.
Terkuak!!!
Kenapa selama ini tak terlihat sosok ayah di keluarga Khong GuanSimak Pengakuan Sang Ibu Kpd Anak2nya 👇 #JokowiLagi pic.twitter.com/ICNbmVgUE2
— Murtadha (@MurtadhaOne) September 24, 2018
The video, which parodies both the Khong Guan memes and the overly dramatic style of Indonesian sinetron (soap operas), shows the mother and her two children sitting at the same iconic table but with expressions far more troubled than those of the smiling family on the biscuit tin.
The mother asks the children why they looks so sad and asks what is weighing on their minds.
“Actually we are embarrassed, Mom. We are ashamed because of netizens,” the boy in red says.
“Netizens always question why our fathers is never seen but we are always eating well,” says the girl in yellow.
After hearing their pain, the mom decided to reveal where their father is, saying she was reluctant to do so before because she was afraid she would be accused of campaigning (possibly a reference to the controversy over an ad recently shown before movies at some Indonesian movie theaters touting the government’s infrastructure accomplishments that was also accused of political campaigning).
The mother says that their father is employed again because the government has managed to reduce the unemployment rate to 5.13%. She also says the government has reduced the poverty rate to the single digits, the lowest at any time in history of the republic, which is why they can eat well.
Moved by this news, the kids yell out “Mom!” and go in for a group hug. They tell her not to be afraid of being accused of campaigning because what she was saying was the truth and answered the suspicions of netizens.
The video ends with a poster for President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin along with the hashtags #IndonesiaMaju (#IndonesiaGoForward) and #JokowiLagi (#JokowiAgain).
It’s not exactly clear from the video who made the political campaign advertisement (the OP Twitter account, @MurtadhaOne, says in its bio “Nobody just an ordinary Indonesian who is amazed and proud of the President”). But judging from the production values, sharp satire and on-point execution, it looks like the work of professionals connected to the campaign.
Ultra-Islamist in Prabowo clan preparing to invites boycott Khong Guan in 3..2..1 https://t.co/JE0vBcZKby
— 5KI #SkepticalForAll (@SSSS_KI016) September 24, 2018
The vast majority of netizens have posted approving responses to the video so far, though some worried that it could lead to protests against the iconic biscuits by hardline Islamists (as happened to the Sari Roti bread company after a certain ridiculous incident during the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election).
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