Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – About two weeks after Indonesian strongman Suharto stepped down from his 32-year presidency, Indonesian editor, poet and political activist Goenawan Mohamad brought his lieutenants to a villa in the scenic Puncak area in the southern belt of Jakarta. Goenawan brought with him just one agenda: how should they anticipate the huge political changes in Indonesia?
Indeed, he noted, Suharto did not step down voluntarily on May 21, 1998. Suharto was forced to resign amid nationwide student protests and massive rioting in many parts of this world's forth most populous country. Many Indonesians of Chinese-descent were victimized in the riots, their houses burned down and Chinese women sexually harassed.
Suharto's successor, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, promised to reform the country's political system, to hold fair elections, to release political prisoners and to support a free media. But many found it difficult to believe that a Suharto crony like Habibie would implement such measures.
Most of the journalists who attended the Puncak meeting were working for the Jakarta-based Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information, a low-profile "think tank" whose only objective is achieve freedom of the press in Indonesia. Goenawan and several other journalists set up the group up a few months after the Suharto government closed down Indonesia's oldest weekly news magazine, TEMPO, in June 1994, when Goenawan was its editor-in-chief.
But to the surprise of many, Habibie has tried to keep his pledge. He announced a bold decision in June to open the media to all comers. His government allows journalists to establish independent organizations, cutting down the monopoly of the state-controlled Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI). Newspapers would no longer need political connections to get a license to run a printing press.
The result: many new newspapers immediately entered the market. Three months after the move, the Ministry of Information has issued more than 500 press licenses – more than the Suharto regime issued in the 32 years of his rule. New daily newspapers emerged not only in Jakarta but also provincial cities, including Medan in northern Sumatra, Surabaya in the eastern part of Java as well as Ujungpandang in southern Sulawesi.
Private radio stations raced into news reporting, an area the government had monopolized, after the collapse of the government-controlled Radio Indonesia (RRI). Information Minister Muhammad Yunus declared in June that private stations could reduce the compulsory relay of the RRI news reports from 14 times to three times per day, a huge relief for millions of Indonesians who had become terminally bored with government propaganda.
Jakarta-based stations such as Trijaya FM, Sonora and Elshinta immediately began producing their own news reports. Elshinta 90.05 FM went even further, broadcasting the BBC Indonesian Service in November 1998. That was a bold decision in a country where many government officials and army officers still consider the respected British radio service "too critical."
But the new openness has also driven the emergence of sensationalism. Many of the new tabloids tend to publish speculative reporting that freely mixes facts and opinions. Tabloids tend to spice up their reports with sex and crime.
The Warta Republik tabloid, for example, published a December report on how former Vice President Try Sutrisno and former Defense Minister Edi Sudrajat had allegedly competed to date a widow. Neither Sutrisno nor Sudrajat were interviewed – and neither was the widow.
The resulting lawsuits against the media include a case that pits the Jakarta military command against the Tajuk bi-weekly. The military accused the magazine of tarnishing its reputation in a report that said former Jakarta commander Major General Sjafrie Sjamsuddin, a close associate of Suharto's son-in-law Prabowo Subianto, was involved in instigating the massive riots of May 14-16, 1998.
Prabowo himself was transferred from his position one day after the fall of his father-in-law amid widespread speculation that the three-star general was also involved in kidnapping human rights activists as well as instigating the riots, when more than 6,000 buildings burned and some 1,200 people killed in the fires.
But the new openness doesn't mean that it is totally better. Indonesian soldiers harassed and beat up more than four dozen journalists in the difficult period between April and November 1998. Sayuti, a photographer for the Jakarta-based Media Indonesia daily, was shot in the chest while photographing soldiers shooting into a crowd in Jakarta.
Tutang Muchtar of the Jakarta-based weekly "Sinar" was beaten by eight soldiers while covering a student demonstration in Jakarta. Although Muchtar showed his attackers his journalist identification card, he was beaten until he bled and his camera was seized.
Several foreign journalists were also expelled from Indonesia prior to Suharto's departure in May. Police in the ancient Javanese city of Yogyakarta arrested Akhihiro Nonaka, a journalist with the Japan-based "Asia Press" and photographer Anthony Ashley of the Perth-based "West Australian" newspaper. Both were questioned prior to the seizure of their film and expulsion from the city. Countless incidents also took place involving journalists who traveled out of Jakarta and faced army intimidation in the provinces.
Even after the fall of Suharto, the Habibie government still expels or prohibits entry to foreign journalists at the Jakarta airport. John Stackhouse, a New Delhi-based Canadian journalist for the Toronto Globe and Mail, was expelled on Nov. 10, 1998. Stackhouse was told his name was on an Indonesian military blacklist and denied permission to enter the country, forcing him to board an outbound flight to Kuala Lumpur.
"It is disappointing that, having fully complied with the Indonesian immigration procedures, he was denied access to such an important country at such an important time," Globe and Mail foreign editor Patrick Martin said.
As if trying to justify such decisions, Indonesian generals continually accuse journalists, both foreign and Indonesian, of meddling in national politics and bullying the military. In one of the most recent incidents, three Indonesian journalists were hospitalized trying to photograph an anti-Habibie student protest in Jakarta in November.
Radio and television journalists, however, boldly stepped up their coverage of the protest, vividly demonstrating to their audience how the military used automatic weapons, batons and other army equipment excessively to crack down on peaceful student protests. Goenawan himself, one of the most respected journalists in Indonesia, praised the courageous radio and television journalists, thanking many of them in a simple ceremony in December 1998. At least six students were killed in May, and several more died in November.
Goenawan and his colleagues say they believe that Suharto is gone but that to an extent, his regime is here to stay. Habibie knew Suharto for more than 40 years. The powerful armed forces, known as ABRI, still holds many key political positions in Indonesia. ABRI has also decided to preserve the militaristic Dwifungsi doctrine which authorizes the army to be involved both in politics and security matters.
The role of the media will become more important as Indonesia moves toward its first election in June 1999 – supposedly the first free election since 1955. During the Suharto rule, who rose to power since 1965, the seven five-yearly elections were carefully tailored to give legitimacy to his one-man rule.