Image and world press
Image and world press
Beyond a doubt Indonesia was a good host during last week's
meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders,
although some parties tried to tell the world this country had no
right to do the job due to its human rights record.
To the foreign press and human rights organizations,
Indonesia's image problem worsened greatly with the banning of
the Tempo, DeTIK and Editor weeklies in the middle of this year.
And the verdict recently handed down to Muchtar Pakpahan, the
leader of the SBSI independent trade union, by a district court
in Medan only added spice to the foreign focus of attention as
the APEC conference neared.
The journalists who came here to cover the APEC meeting
clearly held the belief the situation was such that anti-
government elements among the public, in particular the people of
East Timor, the former Portuguese colony, would do something to
try to steal the show. After all, Nov. 12 marked the black day
in 1991 when 50 demonstrators -- by the authorities' count --
were killed when they clashed with troops in Dili. It was
therefore not surprising when the cameras of the foreign TV
networks focused on the 29 young East Timorese protesters who
jumped over the spiked fence of the United States embassy in
Jakarta on Nov. 12, just a couple of days before the historic
meeting of the APEC leaders in Bogor. Other foreign cameras were
equally ready to record Dili demonstrators doing their best to
provoke the Indonesian security authorities, who refrained from
answering violence with violence.
It is not so much that the Timorese students felt the need to
converge on the capital from various parts of the country that
hurts us, but that we had to watch the ugly demonstrations by
people whose province is so much better developed now than it was
when the Portuguese deserted it two decades ago. And perhaps even
more ironic is the fact that many of the demonstrators are
students, young people who have benefited from the education
provided by Indonesia, something their elders had limited, if
any, access to under colonial rule.
Just how a handful of foreign correspondents happened to be
waiting outside the U.S. embassy right when the demonstrators
arrived is only one of the many questions arising in relation to
the protests both in Jakarta and Dili. Even Minister/State
Secretary Moerdiono has said he cannot understand how that came
to be. Nor is it easy to comprehend how journalists just happened
to turn up with cameras when the disturbances broke out in Dili.
Perhaps the foreign journalists were simply exhibiting their
high standards of professionalism. However that may be, they
certainly portrayed Indonesia in a negative light before the
nations of the world, prompting the authorities to accuse some of
them of fishing in troubled waters; a charge they have denied.
While we can only guess what happened, the worldwide reportage
of the demonstrations by the foreign media seems to have brought
home sharply the message that in this age of globalization, fewer
and fewer things can be hidden from the world's eyes.
Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of all of this negative
news coverage is that we are still unable to balance the flow of
information, the bulk of which flows from western organizations.
For that reason, Moerdiono's down-to-earth statement yesterday,
that Indonesia must present a positive image to the outside world
although it may take some time and a great deal of effort, is
heartening.
As Moerdiono said, all Indonesians must work hard to improve
our nation's image.
And clearly, there are a lot things this nation can do to
achieve a better image, among them granting once and for all the
human rights stipulated by our Constitution, including freedom of
expression and freedom of association by eliminating regulations
that curtail them.