Dealing with the press

Dealing with the press

With the strike of a gong the APEC ministerial meeting, to be
followed by a conference of APEC's heads of government on
Tuesday, was officially opened by President Soeharto yesterday.
But it would be an illusion to believe that only the APEC
conference, or the ensuing bilateral meetings among the
participating government officials have come under the glare of
the television spotlights and the watchful eyes of the thousands
of journalists who have come for the meeting. Unavoidably,
scrutinizing eyes will be, or perhaps already are, directed at
the host country itself, Indonesia.

Once described by President Bill Clinton as the most
underestimated country in the world, Indonesia has in the past
few years taken a different course and adopted a more high-
profile foreign policy. The chairmanship of the Non-Aligned
Movement and the APEC, to name just two examples, have pushed
Indonesia into the spotlight of international politics.

But this does not mean that Indonesia has only lately
attracted the attention of the world media. For years the East
Timor issue, for example, has been in the focus of international
media reports, justifiably to the chagrin of the Indonesian
government because those international observations tended to
focus only on the darker sides of the story and forget the more
positive sides, such as Indonesia's exceptional achievements in
its national development program.

Despite the government's continuous efforts to counter such
negative reports, certain parties abroad have continued to air
complaints that the Indonesian authorities are discouraging
foreign journalists from visiting certain areas in this country,
such as East Timor. These charges -- some of which have turned
out to be groundless since one can see that more foreign
journalists and diplomats are being allowed to visit those areas
-- regrettably have tarnished Indonesia's image abroad to some
extent.

But this time a change can be felt. It is as if the arrival of
over 1,500 foreign journalists for the APEC meeting has prompted
the government to take a new direction. It is encouraging that
now the government seems not only willing to put itself under
scrutiny by the international press, it is also apparently ready
to capitalize on the big event and to use it as an opportunity to
launch a public relations blitz.

The way the government has opened this country's doors to
previously unwanted foreign journalists is an indication of this.
Moreover, the fact that all visiting foreign journalists are
allowed to visit any place they like in Indonesia, including East
Timor, has further supported the notion that something very
refreshing is indeed brewing.

We can only welcome such a wise move and hope that it will not
be short-lived. As the world continues to shrink and the
penetrating eyes of television cameras will soon become as
ubiquitous as the antenna discs which relay the images they
capture to viewers around the world, no country will be able to
escape the onslaught of the world media. And as Indonesia is
moving further onto the international stage, the best policy is
to open up the country since any attempt of cover things up would
surely only invite suspicion that something must be hidden.

We feel that we should have nothing to hide. No one is perfect
and we do for certain still have many shortcomings. But then,
there should be nothing to be ashamed of as long as we really
make the necessary efforts to mend our deficiencies. After all we
are a developing country in which about 25 million people still
live below the poverty line. In reaching for a better future we
have made considerable progress and we believe that we are on the
right track.

The all-important thing in all this is that we must maintain
our political will and continue to move in the right direction.
It is to be hoped that the new "openness" that is now being
displayed in dealing with the visiting foreign press corps will
last and eventually expand to other sectors of our national life.