An attack on `Tempo' is an assault on our freedom

An attack on `Tempo' is an assault on our freedom

Endy M. Bayuni, Deputy Chief Editor, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

The phones, both the fixed line at the office and the cell
version, never stopped ringing on Saturday.

Everyone was asking the same questions: What happened to
Tempo? Why is the magazine under attack? By who? What has it
done? Does it deserve this kind of harsh treatment?

That day, the office of the weekly news magazine on Jl.
Proklamasi in Central Jakarta became the target of a mob of some
200 people. It was all in the news -- TV, radio and websites --
all day. Had it not been for the police, the wild mob would
surely have stormed the building and ransacked the office.

Thankfully, the worst did not happen. Police just managed to
prevent the mob from breaking down the gate of the building.
Still, three Tempo journalists, including its editor Bambang
Harymurti, were subjected to physical abuses by the mob.

Phone inquiries came not only from fellow journalists, but
also from people of different backgrounds, people whose
occupations and professions are not connected with journalism.

Ordinary housewives wanted to know about what happened. Some
questions even came from those who do not subscribe or do not
regularly read Tempo.

They all expressed concern. It was as if they owned Tempo, or
that the magazine was part of their daily lives.

The spontaneous expressions of concern and solidarity suggest
there exists a strong bond between many people in this country
and the magazine. When something as terrible as an attack happens
to Tempo, many people in this country feel the pain too.

The magazine, it is now clear, is still a public institution
of trust much in the same way people treated it back in 1994,
when it was closed down by the regime of President Soeharto. When
Soeharto shut Tempo, many people cried or became outraged.

The magazine, one of only a handful of publications that often
dared to test the limits of press freedom imposed by the
repressive regime, was, to many people a symbol.

Tempo was an icon representing freedom, not only the freedom
of the press, but the freedom of expression. There was not that
much freedom to begin with in those days under Soeharto, but
whatever freedom we had, the magazine was able to capitalize on
it and kept alive the public hope for democratic changes, no
matter how remote the likelihood it seemed at the time.

The magazine shone because most other publications had given
up the fight.

Fast forward nine years, and that kind of bond between the
public and Tempo apparently still exists today. Although the
magazine, resurrected in 1999 by the same people who ran the
magazine in 1994, is not the same as it was back then.

Today's Tempo holds no pretension that it is the same
publication that it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

It is now managed by a younger generation of journalists.
The magazine has listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, making it
subject to the rigors of business enterprises in the way never
experienced by its previous managers.

It faces far stiffer competition, with many more players in
the field. And it no longer enjoys the competitive advantage of
being on the frontline of fighting for and defending press
freedom.

Although Tempo never regained the kind of readership it
enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s, it remains today one of the most
widely read newsmagazines. It is one of the few publications in
the country that has built a strong reputation for its
investigative reporting. It may not be the Tempo Doeloe (Old
Tempo), but it remains one of the few publications with a strong
tradition of investigative journalism.

Was Tempo wrong in publishing that story that led to the mob
attack on Saturday?

In its March 3 edition, Tempo ran an article with a very
suggestive heading Tomy behind the Tanah Abang fire? It refers to
Tomy Winata, a wealthy and powerful businessman in Jakarta, not
to be confused with the other equally powerful businessman Tommy
Soeharto, who is currently in jail.

The article, in search of explanations of the devastating fire
at Jakarta's Tanah Abang textile market last month, says that
Tomy was among several people who may have an interest in
redeveloping the huge Tanah Abang market complex.

This is not an issue that came out of thin air. Tomy in the
article admitted that the magazine reporter was the sixth person
to have phoned him to ask the question whether he might have
something to do with the fire.

The basis of Tempo's allegation was a rumor that had been
widely circulating in the wake of the fire. In keeping with good
journalism practices, Tempo contacted Tomy, and duly reported his
rebuttal.

Tomy was nevertheless unhappy with the article.

On Friday, his lawyers sent a summons to Tempo demanding a
retraction of the report and a public apology. The lawyers said
their client objected to the portrayal of their client as "the
biggest scavenger" of all in the aftermath of the Tanah Abang
market fire.

Tomy Winata may have a point or two in objecting to the
article, but they are no excuse, for him or for his supporters,
to launch a violent attack on Tempo. Especially since he has
decided on the legal course by sending the summons, he should
have raised those objections in court if no amicable solution
could be resolved with Tempo.

Saturday's mob attack was totally uncalled for. The police's
failure to stop the violence, and to take action after it
happened, has made the situation worse than it need be.

The episode sent disturbing signals to the public about the
power of the mob in this country, about abuses by preman (thugs)
that go unchecked, about the power of money, about the failure of
the police to stop the violence, about poor enforcement of the
law and about the breaking down of law and order.

The most disturbing signal however was that the attack on
Tempo amounted to an attack not only on press freedom, but also
on our freedom of expression. If something like this could happen
to a public institution as big and important as Tempo, imagine
the fate of the smaller media in this country. Imagine the fate
of people of lesser fame and fortune, and their rights to freedom
of expression, in the face of unchecked abuses by the mob.

Almost five years since the nation brought down the tyrant
Soeharto, nothing else seems to have changed except that we have
our freedom. The country's economy remains in the doldrums;
democratic cultures still have not taken root; corruption has
become more widespread; justice remains an illusive if not alien
concept; many people still live in abject poverty.

But the nation has its freedom that it can cherish. We must
not let the mobs, and whoever are behind them, take away that
freedom from us.

When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York on
Sept. 11, 2000, they attacked an important American icon. They
angered the entire nation to the point of declaring war on
terrorism.

When the mob attacked the office of the Tempo on Saturday,
they attacked an icon of freedom in Indonesia. The whole nation
should send the strong message that this is unacceptable. We
should wage a war against thuggery.