Dicky Christanto and Indra Harsaputra, Jakarta/Surabaya – Recent pressure by local military chiefs in East Java to cancel the scheduled airing of an opera about a prominent Indonesian communist leader has sparked controversy.
Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said Tuesday that the military's authority did not extend to non-defense and security affairs.
When questioned by The Jakarta Post on whether TNI headquarters had issued an internal policy ordering subordinates to ban all things related to leftist ideology, Iskandar insisted that "the military does not have the authority to ban things".
He said he had contacted local military authorities in Malang and Kediri, East Java, questioning them over the ban, and said none of them claimed to have issued such a decision.
However, Kediri military command chief Lt. Col. Bambang Sudarmanto confirmed that he had issued a ban on Opera Tan Malaka and demanded that local broadcaster KSTV Kediri not air the show. But he also insisted the decision not to air the program was made by the TV station itself, and not because of his coercion.
"The reason for my decision [to demand the cancellation] was to maintain conducive conditions here," he told news portal detik.com on Tuesday. "Those versed in history remember Tan Malaka and his school of thought very clearly," Bambang said.
Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) chairman Dadang Rahmat Hidayat said his office would discuss the controversy on Wednesday, when the East Java branch of the KPI will present its report. "We are still gathering all the facts," Dadang told the Post.
The Tan Malaka opera was first performed at Jakarta's Salihara Theater last year, and was later aired by eight local TV stations and produced by Tempo TV.
During Soeharto's 32-year rule, the TNI was heavily involved in nearly all aspects of daily Indonesian life, including media censorship. It was a common occurrence for the military to contact media organizations to prohibit them from broadcasting or printing anything they regarded as anti-government or critical of the government. After Soeharto's downfall, the military retreated to play a lower profile role.
First president Sukarno declared Tan Malaka a national hero in 1963. Along with Muhammad Hatta and Sukarno, Tan Malaka has been described by many historians as one of Indonesia's founding fathers. But during the Soeharto era, Tan Malaka was all but erased from history books because of his leftist ideology, although his recognition as a hero was never repealed.
Ahmad Basarah from the House of Representatives' law commission said the military was in grave violation of the law if it had indeed pressured stations to effectively censor themselves.
"The military is wrong if it argues that the opera is worth banning because it is perceived to spread values closely associated with socialism and communism. They are wrong because first and foremost the authority to ban is no longer theirs," he said.
"Preventing an event from taking place can still be justified if there are public safety and security reasons at play. So, for example, the police have the right to stop a performance of the opera if they believe it can create serious trouble," Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator Lt. Gen. (ret.) Tubagus Hasanuddin said. He insisted, however, that the TNI did not have the power to issue such a ban.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar admitted he was still in the dark about the ban. He declined to comment on the decision by the local military officers.
The Malang branch of the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI) criticized acts of censorship by the police and military. "We deplore the acts. They are a violation of the press freedom guaranteed by our law," chairman Abdi Purnomo said.