Is Western press adopting a blurred focus on RI?

By Mulyo Sunyoto

JAKARTA (Antara): The Western press is putting Indonesia under a microscope as the country endures tough economic times.

In the past few weeks, major publications, including Newsweek, The Economist and Time, have continuously blended reports into their cover stories.

With their liberal perspective, they have presented Indonesian news stories which can easily make their readers shiver.

Their reports basically describe how bad the socioeconomical and political situation is in the country.

The Economist, on its Feb. 23 cover, depicts the country as a cone-shaped firecracker. The firecracker, with a drawing of the archipelago on it, has its fuse lit. In its reports, with journalists' opinions blended in, the weekly describes how fragile Indonesia's defense is, and gloomy predictions on the nation's future are the highlight.

Based on its observation, which is not always proportional, the Western press uses the words "chaos", "anarchy", "social exploitation" and other revolutionary diction as the key words in this coverage.

When Antara asked Prof. Juwono Sudarsono, a political expert who knows much about Indonesian defense, for his comment, he gave answers which sounded "light", not serious.

"The Western press does not understand Indonesians," said the University of Indonesia professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences, who is also the vice governor of the National Resilience Institute.

Even though his answer sounds "unscientific", because he did not use scientific jargon or scientific terms which are often used by academicians in discussing Indonesia's political issues, it carries deep meaning. It is a kind of philosophical formulation reflecting a philosopher's contemplation.

According to Juwono, Indonesians, as sociopolitical agents, are not like Westerners, whose values are based on logical, rational and pragmatic consideration.

Tolerance

Umar Kayam, a prominent scholar, once said that Indonesians still have the value system, which, to some level, has the spirit of tepo seliro (tolerance). They believe in material deprivation as a certain virtue, which actually has undeniable religious roots.

Because of the lack of understanding on Indonesians, the Western press immediately looks at the events in Indonesia as having linear implications, as if they happened in the West.

The fall of the rupiah, which has resulted in mass unemployment, skyrocketing prices and a decline in the people's welfare, will give birth to revolutionary actions, or, rather, that is the Western press' perspective in looking at the issues here.

But the Western press does not consider at all Indonesians' familial spirit, which is relatively high. If one is laid off, he or she can hang on to an extended family. Such a phenomenon is overlooked by the Western press.

Therefore, it is not necessarily wrong if an economist says that hanging on to one's family is a kind of social insurance which is typically Indonesian.

Another issue extensively observed by the Western press in relation to the monetary crisis in Indonesia is the hunger threat.

In this case, the Western press seems to be certain that the crisis, which has depreciated the value of rupiah by 75 percent, will cause a famine, which can result in revolutionary actions.

The Western press' gloomy projection of Indonesia's socioeconomical and political condition emerges not only because of its weak philosophical understanding in perceiving the nature of Indonesians, but also because they do not conduct objective research. For example: how great is Indonesians' need for staple food, how great the supply is, how great is the possibility to meet future needs and how far the government's ability goes to subsidize the people's need for food.

Because of this weakness in the Western press, Juwono does not really believe the reports and opinions presented globally by them.

What's more, we should bear in mind the concept of journalists, including Westerners, which is based more on the ideology of "bad news is good news". Accordingly, there is a big tendency by the press to highlight the bad news.

Therefore, it is not surprising if a riot, like the one in Ujungpandang, is presented as if all of Indonesia is in a horrible chaotic situation. This is compounded further when the report is accompanied by ghastly pictures of desperate victims.