Indonesia according to Journalist Tim Dodd

Indonesia according to Journalist Tim Dodd

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Indonesian traffic is like a school of fish, it swims down the
road and goes around things, and weaves in and out of the
obstacles," outgoing Australian Financial Review correspondent
Tim Dodd said about Jakarta's traffic.

While many foreigners are horrified with the chaos and refuse
to drive, to Dodd, managing traffic is simple: "Just think of
yourself as a fish and move along with all the other fish, and
you'll be fine".

Apparently, Dodd has found the key to living in this country
-- perhaps it was the Chinese blood he inherited from his mother,
but he is not sure -- that things here do work but you have to
find out how, and that was how he survived the four years of his
assignment as AFR's correspondent for Indonesia.

"I think it's a mistake to say that things in Indonesia don't
work, it's just that they work differently and in different ways
than it would in the West," the 42-year-old said.

But knowing how things work was not all that easy as Dodd
found out during the first year he was assigned to Indonesia, in
1999.

"I was arriving in a country where press freedom had only been
enforced for less than one year. Of course I couldn't expect
press releases to appear on the fax machine or the e-mail saying
what people think about a particular topic, or announcing when
press conferences were going to be, it just didn't work that
way," he said. Since then, he has learned to rely on his network
of friends and other journalists to get news.

Nevertheless, Dodd was proud of the opportunity to work in
Indonesia, for being in the center of the world's news at the
time.

"It was less than a year after Soeharto had fallen, Indonesia
was about to have its first fully democratic election in 40 years
and Habibie had decided he would have a popular consultation in
East Timor, so it was a hot news story back then," he said,
admitting to having requested the posting.

Dodd and his wife, Francine Paton -- whom he had just married
at the time -- had not realized they would eventually see the
ascension of four presidents during his four-year stint.

"Indonesia is a big case study in development, in how a
country which was formerly a colony moved to the point where it
becomes a successful state, and it's very interesting to watch
that process," he said.

Born to an orange grower in Adelaide, South Australia, Dodd
was mainly concerned with physics during his teenage years.
Little did he know that one day he would become a journalist.

"I was fascinated by it (physics) because if you want to know
how the world ultimately works, I thought you had to look at
physics," Dodd, who had studied mathematics and physics at
Adelaide University, said.

But as the editor of the university's student paper, Dodd
became more interested in journalism than science.

"I was actually more interested in the real world. After
spending a year editing the student newspaper at university, and
meeting some journalists, I was interested in it as a
profession," he said.

Dodd's first job in the profession was as a cadet at the
Fairfax Group's Sydney Morning Herald in 1985. After spending a
year there, he moved on to the Group's Sun Herald for two years,
then to its Australian Financial Review where he has worked for
the last 15 years.

As the newspaper's correspondent in Indonesia, Dodd saw that
his role here was to interpret Indonesia for Australians, "to
move outside of the stereotypes and fears that many Australians
have about Indonesia and introduce them to the fascinating sides
and to what is actually happening to Indonesia," he said.

"Because Australia and Indonesia are so different, I think
there are lots of misunderstandings on both sides about the
other."

However, after four years covering the economics and politics
of Indonesia, Dodd could not help but notice there was something
very wrong with the country.

Despite the country's potential -- having the fourth largest
population and abundant natural resources -- Indonesia was being
held back by its elite, he said.

"They are far more interested in stuffing their own pockets
with money than advancing the interests of their own nation,"
Dodd said, citing the elite's disinterest in getting back the
money the country had loaned tycoons to bail out the banks during
the 1998 economic crunch.

"The fact that so many bank owners have not repaid this money,
and the elite is not interested in getting it back. They would
prefer to have a few million in bribes in their back pockets and
see the country robbed of billions of dollars," he said.

The press -- whose role it is to expose the misuse of power
and create public demand for rectification -- was also under
pressure, Dodd noted. "You saw what happened to the Tempo
offices. They were threatened after Tempo had criticized Tomy
Winata, a powerful businessman.

"So there are many forces in Indonesia that are more than
happy with the way things are being held in certain strata and
societies," Dodd said, adding that it was a shame because if the
situation continued, instead of rising along with other
developing powers like China and India, Indonesia would keep
sliding backwards.

Nevertheless, Dodd's message to newcomers to Indonesia is "to
keep an open mind and remember that even if the situation seems
extremely frustrating in Indonesia, it almost always works out
well in the end".