Robert Go, Jakarta – A fire gutted South-east Asia's largest textile bazaar on February 19, and Tempo, Indonesia's best-selling magazine, has been feeling the heat ever since.
In its March 3rd edition, the news weekly called Mr Tomy Winata – one of the country's richest and best-connected tycoons – a "thug" and linked him to the blaze. Tempo had reported that Mr Winata, whose business empire is said to include gambling dens, shopping centres and banks, had proposed an S$11 million renovation for the market. How convenient, the publication suggested, that a fire should destroy 5,500 kiosks shortly after.
Mr Winata fought back. On March 8, a 100-strong mob, which included cadres of a youth group sponsored by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P party, marched against Tempo. They shoved staffers around, punched two of the editors, and threatened to burn down Tempo's premises. They acted "to protect Mr Winata's reputation" and to force a retraction.
Standing and watching the drama were the cops. In fact, a Jakarta court on Monday ordered several Indonesian police officers, including the national police chief, to publicly apologise to Tempo for turning a blind eye to assaults on its reporters.
Winata supporters have appeared before. Last year, armed thugs thrashed NGO Humanika's office after it distributed leaflets on his dealings in drugs and gambling.
Tempo's woes are not over. Editor Bambang Harymurti and journalists Ahmad Taufik and Iskandar Ali have been charged with "knowingly publishing news reports to provoke unrest" and "violating anti-defamation laws". They face up to 14 years' jail.
Mr Winata is suing Tempo weekly and its sister publication, the Koran Tempo daily, for nearly S$60 million. He has also persuaded a court to bar Tempo's co-founder Goenawan Mohamad from selling his house pending the case's outcome.
Some leading public figures have taken notice of the goings-on and have come out in support of Tempo. They see the issue as one of press freedom – can the media freely report the news, or can rich tycoons and powerful figures intimidate the media and even the courts? The court order to confiscate Tempo properties, critics said, was delivered even before the two sides got a chance to face each other in court. These critics, who include top lawyers, rejected the bench's justification that the seizure orders were meant to make sure Tempo would honour a judgment against it.
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid was also critical last Wednesday during a hearing on the Tempo case. He said: "Who in the world does Tomy think he is, that he thinks he can abuse the law for his own interests?" He also attacked Mr Winata"s "shadowy businesses', telling the crowd that in April 2000, he had ordered the police to investigate and arrest the tycoon for allegedly running gambling operations on an island north of Jakarta. The authorities did nothing, he said.
Legal experts said some aspects of Mr Winata's case against Tempo are unusual and "maybe even suspect". Mr Frans Winarta, a top lawyer in Jakarta, said: "This is out of the ordinary. The judge applied a debtor-law clause to a libel case." He explained that judges had rarely done this before, and only when they feared defendants might skip town and not pay the penalties. Other legal sources told The Straits Times they suspected judges had been pressured to act against Tempo.
All these allegations do not ruffle Mr Winata. He insists he is a "legitimate" and "successful" businessman.
The real issue here, however is the evolution of Indonesia's media and press. Indonesia's media outlets are much livelier since the end of the Suharto era. The increased number of mob attacks and libel suits against publishers are signs of this.
Several editors of top Indonesian media said the outcome of this court battle will determine what freedoms journalists will enjoy. One such source said: "If Tempo loses this case, then we'll see more attacks from politicians or the rich who are bothered by our reports, even if what we print is truthful."