From fighting press to money controlled media today

By Christianto Wibisono

JAKARTA (JP): The growth of the business, development and industrial press sectors has been a popular discussion topic since the mid-1980s.

Splashy entries by several business tycoons into the usually politicized media scene stimulated heavy debate on the role, function and ramifications of a money-controlled press. Analysts quickly sounded off on the risk of information bias and conflict of interest.

This situation is not without precedent -- to a minor degree, the history of the press in the Dutch East Indies and following independence in the 1940s is repeating itself today.

The Colonial Era

By 1852, the Java Bode in Batavia (Jakarta) and De Locomotief in Semarang had been established in the Dutch East Indies.

In 1866 Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, the predecessor of the Surabaya Post, started publication in Surabaya, the largest commercial city of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch-language newspapers enjoyed a special relationship with the giant MNC and the "Big Eight" Dutch companies of three major banks and five trading houses, which between them controlled almost 90 percent of the Indonesian economy.

In the middle of the business pyramid, the Chinese population acted as buffer between the giant companies and the indigenous masses. The Chinese also had their own publications in Mandarin and Bahasa Peranakan, a hybrid of Malay and Mandarin.

Two groups competed for the Chinese market. This started with the leftist Sin Po Group in 1910. The rightist and anti-communist faction established their publishing group Keng Po in 1923. The rivalry between the two spread all over Indonesia, illustrated by Semarang, where leftist sympathizers had Sin Min while the anti- communists had Kuang Po.

Indigenous freedom fighters also understood the strategic role of newspapers in mobilizing public opinion against the colonial regime. Hence came the classic term pers perjuangan, a fighting press, whose main function was to lead the struggle for Indonesian independence. Among those famous pioneer journalists were RM Djokomono Tirtoadisuryo, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the latter two Indonesia's first president and vice president respectively. The indigenous press lacked the business acumen of the Chinese or the commercial advantage of the Dutch press. They managed to survive only through loyalty of people sympathetic to their cause.

After the four-year war for independence ended in 1950, the political structure and elite personalities were new, but the economy and press reprised their roles from colonial days.

The 1950s: One Man Show Press

Nevertheless, the Indonesian strategic elite in the government, economy and press was doing its best to create strong indigenous business groups and a national press.

The government established state-owned enterprises to gradually build their base in an economy still dominated by the Dutch companies. They also embarked upon affirmative action by granting import licenses only to indigenous merchants. ThisBenteng Policy ultimately failed because most of the indigenous traders resold their licenses to the Chinese. Only a handful survived.

But, ironically, the government was the predator on the indigenous Indonesian press. Indonesian newspaper heavyweights like Mochtar Lubis and Rosihan Anwar successfully launched their famous Indonesia Raya and Pedoman in the competitive market, only to have them closed down. In the first decade after independence, there prevailed a One Man Show type of press, with newspapers identical to their founders, who also juggled roles as publishers and editors.

Among the oldest newspapers still alive today is Merdeka founded by BM Diah. Sumantoro started Berita Indonesia and Injo Beng Goat opened Keng Po. In Medan, the Said family published Waspada and the Idris family launched Mimbar Umum. In Padang, Kasoema owned Haluan, and Djamal Ali started Pikiran Rakyat in Bandung. In Semarang, Hetami was identical with Suara Merdeka, while in Yogyakarta, Samawi and Wonohito were the duo of Kedaulatan Rakyat.

Then came the sudden revolutionary elan of the West Irian liberation campaign. All Dutch firms were nationalized in 1956. A. Azis in Surabaya shrewdly took over Soerabaiasch Handelsblad and republished it as Surabaya Post. The former De Locomotief in Semarang was taken over by the Nainggolan family to become Tempo and Republik, which ceased publication in the 1970s. In Jakarta, the former printing facilities owned by Java Bode became state- owned enterprises and were used to print party newspapers like Bintang Timur. The era of One Man Show Press ended after the country went into political etatism, with everything subordinated to the political structure.

1960s: The Politically Affiliated Press

The press was required to pledge loyalty to the Manipol (political manifesto) of the Sukarno government in 1959; those who balked were banned or closed shop voluntarily. Abadi, owned by Masyumi, closed down, and Indonesia Raya and Pedoman were banned. It was a tragedy for Rosihan because he had willingly signed the oath. Sukarno and the military still found his publication lacking, and ordered it shut.

During this period, the press was published under collectivism and had to declare affiliation to political parties. Suluh Indonesia was the mouthpiece of the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), Harian Rakyat of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), Duta Masyarakat of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Bintang Timur of Partindo. In addition, Kompas was a Catholic newspaper and Sinar Harapan a Protestant one. The Chinese-language newspapers were stripped of exclusivity and absorbed into the national press. The government imposed strict rules to control these newspapers.

In 1965 dawned the climax and anti-climax simultaneously. In February, the government banned the anti-communist publications united under the BPS front. Included in this sweeping action were Merdeka and Berita Indonesia. However, the Army was quick in finding alternatives. They used the Merdeka facilities to publish Angkatan Bersenjata and they launched Berita Yudha to replace the banned Berita Indonesia. In a clever game of word mutation, BI became BY. For the elite in Jakarta, breakfast was served with rightist anticommunist Berita Yudha, but the communist leaning Warta Bhakti, the largest newspaper in the country, was present at dinner.

Everything changed when an attempted communist coup was crushed by Major General Soeharto. Within hours, the government banned all communist publications, and gradually restored and enabled the republication of crusading newspapers such as Indonesia Raya, Pedoman and Abadi. In subsequent years, the New Order led by President Soeharto replaced the authoritarian Manipol regime of Sukarno, who died in 1970.

The 1970s: The Honeymoon Period and After

Beginning in 1966, there was the gradual restoration of press liberty. The so-called crusading newspapers were given a new lease on life.

The test of the rule of law versus rule of power was best shown by the gesture of the state not to ban Nusantara, but to bring instead its chief editor TD Hafas to court. It was an updating of the old colonial law on offensive remarks against the sovereign.

Mochtar Lubis, a member of the Press Council and an admirer and supporter of Soeharto, praised the government move as a positive way to educate the people -- don't close or ban the media, just bring those responsible to court.

The New Order honeymoon period for the press ended forever with the Malari incident in 1974, the result of a complex mixture of palace politics, intra elite high level rivalry between Ali Murtopo and Gen. Soemitro and mass dissatisfaction.

Since then, the Indonesian press has lived with the sword of Damocles above their heads. Loss of the publishing license (once called SIT, now SIUPP) spelled closure without legal recourse.

There was also growing professionalism and the partnership between young journalists and business -- Tempo was founded jointly between investors and professional journalists.

It is important to note that in 1973, before the Malari incident, the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and the Association of Newspaper Publishers (SPS) had decided to stop issuing recommendations for new SIT. They had effectively put up a barrier protecting present players from the competition of new entries. The last SIT issued before the "effective freezing of new SIT" was a magazine for Sumanang named Sari Pers. This was later bought by the Tempo Group and renamed Zaman before its present appearance as Matra. It was ironic that nearly 20 years after the seizure of the Dutch press and the assimilation and integration of the Chinese press into the national press, there was a new dichotomy of stronger and weaker press, or national press against the local regional or provincial press.

In 1978, another temporary massacre occurred when the government banned several newspapers in the hectic days of the People's Consultative Assembly's election of the president in March. In 1980, Minister of Information Ali Murtopo endorsed the Press Council Recommendation on Press Regulations. This is the first and the only regulation which could be classified as an antimonopolistic measure. It is ironic that while people campaigned against business monopolies, the government did not think it appropriate to create an antimonopoly law against controlling business groups. But in the press sector, the government did enforce this strict antimonopoly mechanism. First, they ruled out new licenses, protecting the existing publishers. Second, they limited pages and advertising space ratios in every publication.

Upon learning of this draconian antimonopoly policy with its heavy bias against successful publications which based their achievements on meritocracy, the publisher of Kompas, PK Ojong, collapsed and never fully recovered from the shock.

Due to its restrictions on the stronger press from expanding, the government has managed to prod publishers into other fields of business, while inviting non-press conglomerates to encroach upon the media business with their gigantic capital. In the U.S., The Washington Post's Katherine Graham would never be expected to open a hotel or do any business except that related to publishing and media.

That is the beauty of modernization, diversification and differentiation. The higher the social structure like the higher the organic species, there should be differentiation and diversification in the function of their organs. I like to call the ambiguous policy of the government pushing the press into fishery and the hotel business as "amoebic", making people resemble amoeba. Dysfunction, distortion, multifunction and chaotic --there is conflict of interest because you are a businessmen as well as publisher and editor, trader and journalists simultaneously. Whose interest come first, who is to control whom? How do you act as a watchdog for your own business and conflicting interest?

The 1980s: The Entry of Conglomerates

After the successful venture of Tempo, Ciputra put his strength behind some other publications. This attracted the interest of Anthony Salim to join with Ciputra in the launching of Bisnis Indonesia in 1985. This marked the direct entry of conglomerates into the press business and the gradual decline of the professionals vis-a-vis the capitalist.

In 1970, Goenawan Mohamad still managed to force a fifty-fifty deal against Ciputra, who provided the Rp 22 million fresh capital to launch Tempo. At that time there was no "price" for the SIT/SIUPP. However, since the restrictions and entry barrier for the new publishers, the value of the SIUPP rose in the same manner of banking license values.

In 1970, the government had stopped issuing banking licenses. Bankers needed to buy these, often for billions of rupiah, from bankrupt banks holding no assets but the license. In 1988, the government begain issuing banking licenses again. But in the case of press, the government continued its mysterious policy of issuing new licenses only under special consideration. Special could mean political or high transaction costs for publishers to get new or take over old licenses from floundering publications. The cost of the SIUPP takeover would make the initial capital higher, and the possibility of emulating Goenawan Mohamad's strategy is practically nil.

The phenomenal growth of the Jawa Pos Group under the leadership of Dahlan Iskan shows the futility of government restrictions against the market. No bureaucratic action can stop the market effectively unless through a crude and arbitrary way. A decade after the 1980 anti-monopoly measures, advertisers still prefer to wait a month for space in Kompas rather than sink charity into "weaker press". Advertising is meant to reach people, not subsidize unread and unsold publications. Charity can happen once a year, but advertisements means money, and they needs return.

The difficulties are exacerbated by the oversupply. Even New York and Tokyo can only support two or three newspapers, not a dozen unhealthy opinionated press. The same is true for the provincial cities. You cannot force the community to pay for more than two newspapers because it has no supporting economic base and capacity to maintain the existence of so many newspapers. The problem is how to control the market.

As mentioned above, the so-called Wali Sanga Press, founded during the One Man Show period, still survives and is doing well. Some are rising with the economic condition of the country and maintain leading position in their hometowns. Pikiran Rakyat in Bandung, Suara Merdeka in Semarang and Kedaulatan Rakyat in Yogyakarta. Others have been pushed to the sidelines by newcomers; Analisa is bigger than Waspada or Mimbar Umum in Medan. The position of Haluan in Padang is challenged by Singgalang, Surabaya Post is pushed down by Jawa Pos, and its affiliate in Ujungpandang, Fajar, is gradually replacing Pedoman Rakyat as the leading daily in that city.

The 1990s: More Concentration and Oligopolist Trend

Although we have been informed that there are approximately 300 SIUPP in Indonesia, we could easily identify the existence of a dozen groups who control two thirds of those licenses among themselves. Two leading media superpowers are Kompas Gramedia and Jawa Pos Group, which roughly own 60 licenses spreading from Banda Aceh to Jayapura. Others are the Pos Kota Group, Media Indonesia, Suara Pembaruan, Republika, Bisnis Indonesia and the stronger provincial press such as Pikiran Rakyat and Suara Merdeka.

If we further analyze who is behind such groups we will find that the name should include either political heavyweights such as Habibie or tycoons such as Aburizal Bakrie. Minister Habibie launched Republika and sold its shares openly in public even defying the Bapepam mechanism. Now Republika controls The Indonesia Times and Adil. Aburizal Bakrie bought Sinar Pagi to add to his business media of Popular and Prospek magazines, as well as ANTeve.

Bimantara had a relationship with Surya Paloh from Media Indonesia. Its chief executive, Peter Gontha, seems to have a hobby of collecting TV stations and multimedia licenses; he recently relaunched The Indonesian Observer. Bob Hasan entered the media through Gatra, Paron after years of nurturing Sportif magazine without significant results. Warta Ekonomi is owned by conglomerate Fadel Muhamad and is acquiring Mobil Motor magazine. Berita Buana, a weak successor to Berita Indonesia, has been supported by Probosutedjo. Sukarno Wibowo who was with Buana since Sumantoro's days had links to the only Chinese language daily, Harian Indonesia.

It is easy to understand that the present oligarchy in Indonesia's leadership system does not want to lose control of this strategic business field. Only those who have close access and connections, and are trusted by the political elite, could get publishing licenses. There is no place for young professionals or new entry into this sensitive and risky business. The government took notes and learned lessons from their past experiences of international reactions against media bans. It now seems to be the priority of the state to ensure that those who actually hold the licenses are trustworthy operators.

Should they fail to perform their duty to maintain the political stability and are considered detrimental to the status quo of the regime, the government may use legal procedures to replace editors, transfers them to publisher with no direct control on the contents and smoothly clean the media of its unwanted personalities. Only those considered partners in business and uncritical of the establishment will get licenses.

The responsibility of the independent and professional journalist in this difficult situation is to learn the art of survival. How to maintain vigilance and the essence of journalism so as not to provoke the establishment with a reason to close down the publication. He or she has to understand euphemism and be gentle to establishment, never touching a sensitive nerve through mention of several taboos which could never be printed, unless you dare to face the fatal consequences.

Freedom fighters struggled for independence against the Dutch with the slogan "Fredoom to Die". It is much easier to say and practice that today. Just print some basic, but hard and bitter realities and the result may be entrance into the Black Hole of oblivion. Now the slogan for the Indonesian press is not 'Berani Mati' (Dare to Die) but 'Berani Hidup' (Dare to Live), 'Tetap Kritis' (Maintain a Critical Attitude) and 'Tidak Konyol' (Never be Quixoctic).