Delay passage of broadcasting bill

Delay passage of broadcasting bill

Ardimas Sasdi, Staff Writer, Jakarta, ardimas@thejakartapost.com

So powerful were the owners and executives of the private TV
stations that they were able to delay the approval of
Broadcasting Bill No. 27. The very same law was not even
enforceable a year after its approval by then President Soeharto.

In the reform era the same TV stations, plus Metro TV,
continually exposed the weaknesses of the government of
president B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Megawati
Soekarnoputri without mercy, as if everything had run smoothly
under the New Order administration.

Irritation expressed by Megawati and her aides with the press
must be understood within this context, although it is naive to
ignore the reality that the government as power holder also had
an intention to use this law to control the press as the New
Order government had done in the past. Megawati has criticized
the press at least twice this year: The first occasion was around
Press Day in February and the second shortly after the Nunukan
tragedy in October.

The President accused the press of going overboard by blowing
everything out of proportion, creating an image that Indonesia
was burning.

But in the latest protest against media coverage, Megawati may
have been ill-informed by her aides that her criticisms sparked a
strong reaction from journalists, academics and politicians. The
reaction was properly aired by veteran journalist Rosihan Anwar,
who said that it was improper for the President to criticize the
press. Rosihan said the President should instead thank the press,
which had helped raise the plight of hundreds of thousands of
migrant workers stranded in squalid camps in Nunukan, East
Kalimantan, to the surface through its coverage so that the
government became aware of the gravity of the situation, and took
proper measures to deal with it. The workers had been deported
and harassed by Malaysian authorities under a new, tough
immigration policy on foreign workers.

Judging from the strong opposition of the media and public to
the new Broadcasting Bill and the wider political realities,
Megawati has two choices: First, forget her concern about the
effect of a free press and initiate efforts through members of
her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle to stop deliberations
on the bill. Efforts to continue deliberations on the bill could
be viewed by the already hostile press as government endeavors to
restrict its freedom.

The aim to "control" the press is also not popular and could
become political suicide for a politician in power. Former Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for instance, was forced to bow to
pressure to drop a draconian law on the press in 1988 after
massive protests from the press, including the press sympathetic
to her and her Congress Party. The case was believed to be one of
the factors that in the end cost Gandhi her premiership. The same
could also happen to Megawati.

Second, it is better for the government to reflect rather than
continue deliberations on the bill, even though there are some
positive aspects to it, such as clauses that regulate cross-
ownership in the media, media conglomeration, diversity of
information and the establishment of a public media freed from
commercial interests.

The aim to control the press would kill nascent press freedom
and impede the process of democratization, of which the key is an
informed citizenry.

Moreover, efforts to muzzle the press are against the spirit
of reform in the media industry promoted by the government of
B.J. Habibie through liberalization and deregulation of the media
industry in 1998. Thus it would also be viewed by already
restless investors on future investment in Indonesia as an anti-
business policy.

Third, there were strong indications of politicization of the
Broadcasting Bill by Megawati's political opponents to pit the
government against the press. Indications of that have been
strong. Deliberations on the bill were marked by protests and
walkouts by legislators who were initially considered pro-bill,
such as Effendy Choirie of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and
Djoko Susilo of the National Mandate Party (PAN). In September
2002 Astrid Susanto, a professor of communications and one of the
staunchest proponents of the bill, walked out of a meeting with
Minister Syamsul Muarif in protest at the government's lack of
commitment to the bill.

The Muarif factor, a leading architect behind Golkar's
successful campaign in improving the image of Golkar among
legislators in the House, is more of a liability for Megawati as
part the risk of having a rainbow Cabinet than as an asset in
connection with the bill. The minister's aspect is not trivial.
Golkar was apparently not happy with the current Cabinet as they
saw Megawati had not been being doing anything to prevent the
Attorney General's Office from processing the case of Golkar
chairman Akbar Tandjung, who was sentenced by the district court
to three years' imprisonment for graft in the Rp 41 billion Bulog
scandal.

Fourth, support from intellectuals and academics as opinion-
makers to back the new bill, is difficult to obtain as they rely
heavily on the media for their mouthpiece. The only way the
government can gain some popular control over the communications
field, as put by Robert McChesney (2001), is to mobilize a
popular movement. But even this is not easy for Megawati to
achieve at the moment, with the popularity of the existing
Cabinet so low.

Even at the PDI Perjuangan level support is hard to obtain,
with party leaders involved in internal bickering over party
policy. Some also observed that the government had failed to
raise their standard of living, causing disillusion among those
who considered that life was better under the dictatorial regime
of Soeharto.

Last, there are many urgent things that need government
attention, such as sound and concrete programs to bring the
country out of economic crisis befalling Indonesia since 1997,
and the political and security uncertainty in the country. The
fight against terrorism is new, but a much more pressing need
that the government has to deal with quickly and correctly. The
effect of the Oct. 12 Bali blast has crippled the tourism sector,
not only in Bali, but also within Indonesia generally.

The writer received his masters degree in communication
science from the University of Indonesia, Jakarta.