'CNN', Indonesia

'CNN', Indonesia

From Kompas

I often wonder whether Indonesia is really as well-known
as we have always imagined. On Aug. 10, 1995 I watched the CNN
television network. As we know, CNN is an organization which is
capable of presenting news items, sports and prestigious
interviews from all over the world.

On that night CNN was featuring a program called Important
Days During the Month of August. However, to my great dismay, for
Aug. 17, the agency chose to report about a "fish party" in
Sweden, instead of the Indonesian Independence Day.

I thought they were probably broadcasting non-political events
or things that have no historical value. But, why, for Aug. 15,
did CNN clearly show the National Day of Liechtenstein. Is
Indonesia regarded more inferior than Liechtenstein, a country
which is said to be only as long as a train?

How could this happen? There must be some reason which I don't
know. Once I stayed in a hotel in Australia. The hotel has an
ASEAN Room, which does not include Indonesia. In Ramada Hotel on
the Gold Coast, near the reception counter hangs a large watch
showing different times of some parts of the world. It tells Hong
Kong time, Singapore time, but no Jakarta time.

I have seen the document about women's movement in the world
which is to be published by the Singapore Times Center. The book
contains articles about women's movements in 15 countries. Again
Indonesia is not included. Also I once watched a film about Asia
in Disney World in Tokyo. Indonesia was not in the film.

In reality, Indonesia plays an important role in the ASEAN
grouping, the Indonesian President is chairman of the Non-Aligned
Movement, Indonesia recently hosted the APEC conference, and was
the host of the first Asia-Africa Conference. There are so many
important events taking place in Indonesia, but why is it that
CNN is ignorant of Indonesia? On the other hand, Liechtenstein is
so popular to them. What a sad thing!

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