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INDONESIA-MEDIA: The Debate -
to Agitate or to Wait For Change

By Kunda Dixit
JAKARTA, Aug 15 (IPS) - It is a chicken or egg situation: Will
Indonesia have to wait for a change in the political system for a
freer media, or will the media be itself the catalyst for change?

The question has become even more relevant in the aftermath of the rise
in recent months of a vocal political opposition led by Megawati
Sukarnoputri which has been trying to capitalise on leadership
uncertainties and chronic income disparities that have persisted despite
Indonesia's rapid economic growth.

Recent street protests turned violent, and on Jul. 27 at least three people
were killed in the riots that ensued after police raided the Jakarta
headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) that was occupied
by Megawati supporters.

Indonesia's state-controlled media has largely been giving the official
version of events, with the government's 'TVRI' portraying the attacks on
businesses on Jakarta's main boulevard after the raid as political
hooliganism.

Private television has been freer to show footage of the unrest in news
feature programmes, but this may be because some of the five biggest
private stations -- 'RCTI', 'TPI' and 'SCTV', belong to companies
part-owned by President Suharto's relatives.

Indonesians with access to satellite dishes have followed coverage of
events in their own country through international news channels like 'BBC
World', 'CNN' and Australia's 'ABC'.

In recent days, local stations have been re-broadcasting TVRI's evening
news blaming the violence on 'communists' as a way to justify its
crackdown on all opposition. Singled out has been Budiman Sujatmiko of
the small Democratic Peoples' Party for being behind a plot to topple the
government.

Budiman, who was in hiding, was arrested earlier this week, but not before
his tearful parents were put on state television over the weekend and
shown asking him to give himself up.

Most political experts do not think the PDI has the organisational base, and
Megawati may not have the leadership qualities to galvanise a nation-wide
opposition movement. But uncertainties persist about who will succeed
Indonesia's 75-year- old president Suharto and there is also a widespread
perception of corruption that appears to be giving the unrest its
momentum.

Suharto came to power in 1967 after a 1965 abortive coup, blamed on the
since banned Communist Party of Indonesia, led to the downfall of late
President Sukarno -- Indonesia's charismatic post-independence leader,
and Megawati's father. The military- backed take-over came after
anti-Chinese and anti-communist pogroms in which an estimated 500,000
people were killed.

The government is using the spectre of a return to violence and massacres
to justify its present crackdowns on opposition figures and labour leaders
and to put the lid on what it considers indiscriminate media coverage.

Indonesia's outspoken television journalists, like Wimar Witoelar, have no
doubt that media has to take a leading role in bringing political change. He
made the point last month at a Jakarta seminar on broadcast media
sponsored by AJI with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

''People who hope for politics to change the course of communications
have a long wait in store. The political mechanism is totally within the
control of the power elite and limitations to free communications is an effort
by the power elite to maintain the status quo,'' he said then, his
observation made just as the PDI unrest was heating up.

Wimar has reason to be bitter. Last September, his immensely popular
weekly talk show 'Perspektif' was taken off without warning by the
independent station, 'SCTV'.

To those familiar with Indonesia's media scene, the banning of Perspektif
came as no surprise. Wimar had been rocking the boat by interviewing
people not exactly in the good books of the government and Perspektif
prided itself in being ''a forum where people get away from slogans and
standard euphemisms''.

It covered issues like the split within a branch of the PDI that preceded the
July unrest with greater insight than any of the other broadcast channels,
and since the ban Perspektif has transformed itself into a radio and print
syndication service.

Ironically, even media groups in which Suharto's family have interests have
not been spared the axe. 'Trijaya Radio' which is owned by Suharto's son
Bambang Trihatmodjo's the Bimantara Citra group was stopped last year
from broadcasting its live talk show, 'Jakarta Round Up'.

The censorship is not direct, but media managers are warned not to
exceed certain unspoken thresholds. Said one: ''It is mostly
self-censorship. We know what the limits are, and we are often reminded
to be careful.''

The hardening of the government's attitude towards the media is a trend
that followed the dramatic closure of three popular and money-spinning
publications in June 1994: 'Tempo', 'DeTik' and 'Editor'.

Reporters suddenly out of a job set up the Alliance of Independent
Journalists (AJI). Four of its members, including AJI chairman Ahmad
Taufik, are now in jail.

The government's liberalisation of the broadcast media has ensured that
networks owned by business interests will not jeopardise their licences by
being too bold with their news programmes.

Bimantara Citra, for instance, is negotiating with CNN, HBO and ESPN to
broadcast to what many regard as Asia's most important audience after
China and the Indian sub-continent: Indonesia's 190 million people.
Ownership of satellite dishes in Indonesia is estimated at 1.2 million: one of
the highest per capita in Asia.

In its report 'Muted Voices: Censorship and the Broadcast Media in
Indonesia' published in June, the international media watchdog 'Article 19'
says that liberalisation of media ownership has not encouraged pluralism,
but placed private broadcasting under the direct control of the ruling elite.

It added: ''In Indonesia today there is no sense in which state- run radio
and television stations can be seen as true public service broadcasters,
while those commercial stations which take some, albeit limited, efforts to
air views other than those furnished by the government run the risk of
incurring undefined sanctions.''

Most Indonesian intellectuals today recognise the need for change, but are
averse to the kind of instability and violence that rocked the country three
decades ago. This is where the media's role in promoting social values
and political reform may be key.

Wimar sums it up: ''Public and political processes will interact in
unpredictable ways, but journalism must be a beacon for seekers of
reform.'' (END/IPS/AP-CR-IP-HD/KD/CPG/96)
___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
Pulsar - AMARC
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.net/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +593-2-525521    Fax: +593-542818
Av. America 3584, Casilla 17-08-8489, Quito, Ecuador