Crisis tests Sumita Tobing and 'TVRI'

Crisis tests Sumita Tobing and 'TVRI'

Tony Ryanto, Contributor, Jakarta

The financial crisis hitting TVRI is putting Sumita Tobing's
leadership to the test.

Tobing, the 56-year-old TVRI president director, is known as a
woman of substance who never says no to a challenge, no matter
how tough it may be. She is doing everything to keep her cool.

The acute financial crisis at TVRI deepened in April 2002 when
the government decided to change TVRI's status from Perusahaan
Jawatan (company still financially dependent on the government
but allowed to sell ads) to Perusahaan Terbatas or limited
liability company (no longer enjoying a government subsidy).

Understandably, it came as a real blow when TVRI was excluded
from the 2003 State Budget. The finance ministry's director
general for budgeting, Anshari Ritonga, said he was not informed
of the pending status change until January 2003.

Consequently, financial blues may force TVRI Makassar in South
Sulawesi to go off air next month. Similarly, TVRI Semarang will
follow suit as the network was currently not in a position to pay
its monthly electricity and phone bills of Rp 77 million, studio
head Effendi Anwar said.

Tobing said she could not understand why the change in status
took so long to materialize. Until last year, TVRI, which has 23
stations and 395 transmitters, had an annual budget of Rp 150
billion.

Of the total, Rp 70 billion was allocated to pay TVRI's more
than 7,000 employees. The remaining Rp 80 billion was not enough
for repairs and maintenance of its transmitting equipment, let
alone to buy or make programs.

In contrast, one of the nation's top private networks, with
only one studio, 30 transmitters and 600 employees, has an annual
budget of Rp 1.3 trillion.

"We have 23 stations and almost 400 transmitters apart from a
work force of more than 7,000. By now you must have an idea how
much money we need a year," Tobing said.

Talks are now underway between TVRI and the ministry in charge
of BUMN (state owned companies) to accelerate the change in
TVRI's status. But even after TVRI has become a limited company,
Tobing still has to solve a mountain of problems.

A former newspaper journalist, Tobing joined TVRI at the start
of her career in the late 1970s. She won a scholarship for a
master's degree at Ohio University and returned in 1983 to
develop TVRI's Metropolitan Channel.

She then went back to Ohio University for a doctorate degree
in mass communications and returned to Jakarta in 1987.

In 1992 she left the public broadcaster to design the
Cakrawala news program at private TV station ANteve. The
following year she joined another private station SCTV and was
responsible for developing the network's now well-known Liputan 6
news service.

Tobing is a news editor and she takes pride in it. She is a
stern mentor who often makes her underlings shed tears. And only
after a successful career do people realize how indebted they are
to her.

After leaving SCTV because of what some people described as
irreconcilable differences of views with the top management,
Tobing was hired to launch Metro TV, Indonesia's first news
channel.

Ironically, only weeks before Metro became operational, she
again had to leave the station because of further differences of
opinion.

She rejoined TVRI as president director in 2001 -- a time when
things were in a deplorable condition. Fighting against all the
odds, she managed to popularize some of the public broadcaster's
programming, notably Dansa Yo Dansa (hosted by veteran vocalist
Krisbiantoro) on Sundays at 7.30 p.m. Initially, the program took
one hour but because of its huge success (some attending from as
far away as Medan), it was extended to 90 minutes.

Other nightly live programs, mostly held at TVRI's outdoor
premises and enjoying capacity crowds, feature country, pop/rock,
dangdut and tempo doeloe (oldies) music.

Tantowi Yahya, host of Thursday's Country Road, used to have
difficulties finding cowboy shirts, trousers and accessories he
wanted to wear. Now he and a garment manufacturer in Bandung have
set up "TY Western Wears", with outlets now in Jakarta and the
West Java capital city of Bandung.

Yahya, who is also a singer, has completed an album featuring
a collection of country songs in Indonesian and English. Like
Tobing, he adores trouble-shooting.

Once TVRI becomes a limited liability company, it will be rid
of bureaucracy.

"Our mission is to make the public broadcaster an agent of
change and development. It is our hope that we will ultimately
become a significant global player in the entertainment
industry." Tobing said.