The 18 March 1953 edition of the Pemandangan newspaper upset the\ngovernment. Its reporting on plans for new foreign investment in 21\ntypes of industries was deemed to have leaked state secrets. Prime\nMinister Wilopo requested that the Attorney General investigate and hold\nAsa Bafagih accountable as Editor-in-Chief of Pemandangan.<\/p>\n
However, during the examination, Asa\u2014who was the abbreviation for\nAbdillah bin Syech bin Ali\u2014refused to reveal his news source on the\ngrounds of journalistic ethics. He was charged with violating Article\n224 of the Criminal Code for refusing to provide testimony as a witness.\nDue to opposition and mockery from various quarters towards the legal\nefforts, Attorney General R. Soeprapto eventually halted the case on 15\nAugust 1953.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe case, later known as the Bafagih Incident, subsequently became\nknown as the Right to Refuse in the world of journalism in Indonesia,\u201d\nrevealed Nabiel A. Karim Hayaze at the launch of the book \u201cAsa Bafagih:\nDiplomat and Indonesian Press Figure\u201d at Antara Heritage on Sunday\n(5\/4\/2026).<\/p>\n
The event, moderated by Hadi Nur Ramadhan from the Indonesian History\nHouse, was attended by, among others, former Foreign Minister Alwi\nShihab, senior journalist Bambang Wiwoho, President Director of LKBN\nANTARA Benny Siga Butarbutar, entrepreneur and literacy activist Haidar\nBagir, and members of Asa Bafagih\u2019s extended family.<\/p>\n
Nabiel admitted to compiling the book on the figure born in Tanah\nAbang on 14 December 1918 since 2016 when he was still active in Papua\nNew Guinea. From tracing various archives, old books, scattered writings\nin various mass media, to several documents, it was revealed that Asa\nBafagih, who nearly escaped public discussion and memory, was actually a\nmajor figure in journalism and diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Together with Adam Malik, he was involved in disseminating the 1945\nProclamation news through the Antara News Agency. He once worked at the\nMerdeka daily owned by BM Diah and became a mentor to Harmoko, who later\nbecame the Minister of Information. In the Nahdlatul Ulama environment,\nAsa Bafagih was the founder of Duta Masyarakat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, in the young generation of NU, his name is almost unknown,\nnever discussed. If talking about NU figures who became journalists and\nmidwifed Duta Masyarakat, they only know Mahbud Djunaidi,\u201d said RM Joko\nPrawoto Mulyadi, alias Okky Tirto.<\/p>\n
Not only that. If we search for the name \u2018Asa Bafagih\u2019 on Wikipedia,\nOkky continued, the information that appears is only three sentences.\nSimilarly on YouTube, there is only a snippet of a speech in Tanjung\nPriok with a duration of about one minute. \u201cThis is truly ironic,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n
It is unclear why the name Asa Bafagih seems to suddenly disappear\nfrom historical records. Yet until the mid-1970s, according to the\ntestimony of his seventh son, Rusdi Jayaputra, his father was quite\nfamous and respected among journalists. Every week, the public used to\nlook forward to his writings in the Merdeka daily. \u201cHis column would\ndefinitely increase circulation by 10,000 every time there was Father\u2019s\nwriting,\u201d said Rusdi.<\/p>\n
Asa Bafagih also had close relations with President Soeharto. One\nindication, said Rusdi, was that his father was once invited to perform\nthe pilgrimage together to Mecca.<\/p>\n
Even though he often criticised the government during the Old Order\nera, Asa Bafagih was also friends with President Sukarno. On 18\nSeptember 1960, President Sukarno inaugurated him as Ambassador to Sri\nLanka alongside Ny. Supeni, who became the Indonesian Ambassador to the\nUnited States. Four years later, Asa was entrusted to become Ambassador\nto Algeria, concurrently to Tunisia. Thanks to his mastery of Arabic and\nFrench, he had close relations with President Boumedienne, Foreign\nMinister Bouteflika, and national figures in Algeria.<\/p>\n
Another interesting aspect of Asa Bafagih\u2019s figure, according to\nAbdullah Abubakar Batarfie from Al-Irsyad, is that he did not give his\neight children names with the Hadhrami family appendage. They are\nAchmad, Habibah Kusuma Wardani, Nuril Kamil, Ramzi, Yusri, Muhammad\nWardy, Rusdi Jayaputra, and Fitri Budi Satria. \u201cThis shows how grounded\nhe was on issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asa Bafagih\u2019s career as a journalist, bureaucrat, and politician\nended in Solo on 13 December 1978. His body was buried at Karet\nCemetery, Jakarta. Four years later, on 19 April 1982, Minister of\nInformation Harmoko presented the Press Council\u2019s Award to Asa Bafagih\nas a \u201cPioneer of the Indonesian Press\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, according to Nabiel, by examining all his tracks, he\ndeserves to be remembered as a National Hero. \u201cNot because of the title\nitself, but as a marker of the honesty of History.\u201d<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asa-bafagih-the-forgotten-indonesian-diplomat-and-press-figure-1775645620", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }