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.