Media distortion hurts Indonesia's image<\/p>\n
Vincent Lingga, The Jakarta Post, Hong Kong<\/p>\n
Indonesian officials, businessmen and analysts attending the
\nthree-day East Asian Economic Summit appeared uncomfortable and
\noccasionally frustrated about the negative image that had been
\nprojected about their country to the hundreds of participants who
\nhad come from around the world.<\/p>\n
The anti-American street demonstrations, emotional outbursts
\nagainst the U.S., staged by a few hundred people in Jakarta and
\nseveral other cities over the last two months, seemed to have
\nearned Indonesia the image of a country controlled by millions of
\nradical Muslims.<\/p>\n
The steady stream of stories and prominent displays of photos
\nabout demonstrators with slogans bashing the U.S. and its allies
\nfor the attacks on alleged terrorists in Afghanistan and
\ntelevision interviews with people registering as volunteers to
\nfight in Afghanistan were presented as if the world's largest
\nMuslim-populated country was about to erupt.<\/p>\n
\"I painstakingly explained to them that the group, which
\nthreatened to use violence to express their support of and
\nsolidarity with Muslims in Afghanistan, was negligible compared
\nto the hundreds of millions of moderate Indonesians,\" Minister of
\nTrade and Industry Rini Soewandi told The Jakarta Post after
\ngiving an interview with CNN.<\/p>\n
Rini conceded that even though the voice of reason now
\nprevailed among public opinion, the damage had already been done
\nto Indonesia's image.<\/p>\n
She confirmed that a number of importers overseas had
\ncanceled orders from Indonesia due to security concerns.<\/p>\n
\"Scenes of people demonstrating on the streets are normal,
\nespecially in democratic countries. But when such scenes are
\ndisproportionally displayed in photos and repeatedly zoomed in on
\ntelevision screens, the resulting perception is misleading,\" she
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Did the Indonesian and foreign mass media go over the top in
\ntheir coverage of anti-American sentiment, especially between
\nlate September and the first two weeks of October?<\/p>\n
\"Yes, I think many newspapers and television news broadcasters
\nwent overboard in the treatment of those events,\" said Jusuf
\nWanandi, Chairman of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and
\nInternational Studies.<\/p>\n
Jusuf, who was a panelist at two sessions during the summit,
\nwent into great length to assert that what people overseas read
\nin newspapers or saw on television did by no means represent
\nIndonesian public opinion.<\/p>\n
\"But the way the mass media treated the events created the
\nimpression that radicals sometimes control public opinion in
\nIndonesia,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Garment businessman M.Manimaren also seemed frustrated about
\nthe negative image his buyers had of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"I didn't come here primarily to attend the economic summit
\nbut to meet my buyers as they did not want to come to Indonesia.
\n\"I have to continue our exports, otherwise I would not be able to
\npay my employees. Therefore, I have to go wherever my buyers are
\nwilling to meet,\" Manimaren said.<\/p>\n
Some foreign analysts, who are based in Jakarta or regularly
\nvisit Indonesia, said their perception of Indonesia was not in
\nanyway distorted by the overblown stories about the recent wave
\nof anti-American demonstrations.<\/p>\n
But they admitted that people overseas, notably those who had
\nnever visited Indonesia, could have been scared by what they had
\nread in the print media and saw on television.<\/p>\n
They said Indonesia had inherited problems, which it is now
\nencountering in its transition to full democracy and local
\nautonomy, from more than three decades of authoritarian and
\ncentralized government, the nation was not fanatically anti-
\nAmerican.<\/p>\n
Arwin Rasyid, president of Jakarta-based Bank Danamon,
\nacknowledged that despite the myriad of problems Indonesia is
\nfacing, people need uplifting stories, news about kindness,
\ncompassion amid the torrent of bad news.<\/p>\n
Rasyid was also disturbed about how some of the mass media in
\nJakarta tended to disproportionately emphasize the bad aspects of
\nevents.<\/p>\n
\"Since you have already heard all the bad news, negative
\nthings from the mass media, I will present to you the positive
\ndevelopments currently going on in the banking industry,\" he said
\nat an Indonesian session during the summit.<\/p>\n
Speaking as a panelist at the session, Rasyid cited the
\nrestructuring efforts that had been implemented in the banking
\nindustry and the progress already made in the process of
\nrebuilding a sound financial system in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
He added that, despite the seemingly gloomy outlook of the
\neconomy, one should not live in constant worry, waiting for the
\nnext series of bad news.<\/p>\n
Does Rasyid expect too much, given the liberal mood of
\nIndonesia's press, the preoccupation of many print media with
\nexpanding circulation and the fierce competition among TV
\nbroadcasting stations for a higher rating?<\/p>\n
That depends on the mass media themselves. But like the
\nAmericans who are now at war against terrorism, Indonesia seems
\nin need of another kind of fight, which is a campaign against
\npessimism.<\/p>",
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