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)