Interest groups to fight for mass media: Observer
Interest groups to fight for mass media: Observer
SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): A prominent sociologist predicts
that mass media will play a more important role in Indonesia's
social, cultural, and political arenas this year.
Aware of the great importance of the mass media in framing
public opinion, Darmanto Jatman from the state University of
Diponegoro said that numerous interest groups will continue
making attempts to gain control of the media.
"The trend was obvious several months before 1994 ended when
several conglomerate owners and powerful figures were trying to
establish their own mass media," Darmanto told The Jakarta Post
yesterday.
He mentioned several conglomerates who have entered into mass
media businesses, including Bimantara Group with its television
channel RCTI, Salim Group with its Indosiar TV station, and Bob
Hasan with his Paron tabloid and Gatra weekly.
He said that the more-informed members of Indonesian society
were in need of information from the mass media to catch up with
issues like human rights, economic liberalization and trade.
Darmanto said that the mass media had proven an effective
means to help shape public opinion on political matters like the
ongoing conflict within the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) as well as restructuring of the
ruling political organization, Golkar.
Darmanto said that in the long run mass media would become a
device in engineering the social and political activities of the
country.
Economic crimes
Legal expert and member of the National Commission on Human
Rights Muladi predicted that this year would witness increasing
economic crimes.
He said that "white collar crimes" similar to the crimes that
had happened at Bank Duta, state-owned Bapindo, and Kanindo Group
textile company, will appear in a more sophisticated ways.
Muladi, who is also rector of Diponegoro University, said it
would not be an easy job to combat economic crimes.
"We can not merely rely on legal solutions to the crimes, but
also on moral and cultural approaches," he said.
He also stressed the importance of a tighter control system,
saying that current controls of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) as
well as internal controls in several departments do not guarantee
that there will be no violations.
"I propose an integrated body of experts of various academic
backgrounds to handle the increasing number of economic crimes,"
he said.
The problem is, he said, that some crooks, like Dicky
Iskandardinata, former deputy chairman of Bank Duta, the former
directors of Bapindo and Robby Tjahjadi of Kanindo Group did not
feel guilty and claimed that they had acted on legal grounds.
He said that Indonesia needs to establish better economic
rules and regulations in anticipation of white-collar criminal
activity. (har/imn)