Jacob lends humanity to news

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

His voice is more familiar to Indonesians than his own name. Good reporters are like that, and Jakob Oetama is no exception.

Indeed he is reluctant to expose himself, shy by nature, people close to him say. But over the years it is hard to hide the man behind the most influential newspaper in Indonesia, Kompas

Jakob is set to receive from the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, the honoris causa an honorary doctoral degree in communication.

An alumnus of an undergraduate program at UGM, Jakob will be honored for his achievement in developing a style of journalism with an unfailing passion for promoting humanity.

He and the late Petrus Kanisius Ojong founded Kompas in 1965.

Today, it is the most popular newspaper with a daily circulation of more than 500,000.

Under the Kelompok Kompas Gramedia group, Kompas has paved the way for the development of various other media: radio, tabloids, magazines and recently its own television station.

While Ojong takes the credit for developing Kompas into an Indonesian media empire, Jakob has been in charge of the paper's day-to-day operations.

Both, however shared the same vision that still drives Kompas today.

Kompas was born amid the growing influence of communism in Indonesia. It is essentially a Catholic newspaper, according to veteran Antara reporter Rosihan Anwar in a book Humanisme dan Kebebasn Pers (Humanity and Press Freedom) to celebrate Jakob's 70th birthday in 2001.

The founders however wanted Kompas to have a broad appeal. This was unlike the much younger Republika daily which devotes its pages to Muslim readers, taking advantage of former President Soeharto's loosened stance against Muslim groups during the early nineties.

With its Catholic background in the world's largest Muslim country, Kompas could hardly afford Republika's approach.

It may not have to. "Jakob is a person of humanity, a humane Christian. Devotion to humanity, isn't that the essence of the Christian concept of redemption and salvation?" said noted economist Frans Seda in the anniversary book.

Jakob wanted Kompas to promote a Christian message humanity which was transcendent, a value that is well-suited with Indonesia's pluralistic society despite its vast Muslim population.

But Kompas' stance is not one for the sake of marketing. The paper embodies Jakob's humanistic views, as Frans implied.

This trait is to be found most explicitly on page four of Kompas, the opinion page where Jakob writes the editorials.

"We have seen that in the 38 years since Kompas was established Pak Jakob has been consistently developing such a style of journalism that does not cause a headache to readers," said UGM rector Sofjan Effendi.

The no-headache style is another way of describing Kompas editorials, and their non-confrontational approach.

Editorials reflect a paper's own views over daily news.

The language of the Kompas editorials is simple and clear. It is hard to find a statement one would disagree with. The editorials do not seem to be taking sides with anything, or anybody, not straightforward is the impression.

This may be because Kompas editorials discuss problems with a broad perspective. Its opinion is not about blaming, taking sides, or analyzing events.

Kompas editorials speak of the nation. They ask us where we stand as a people faced by the issues that make up daily news.

"The problems of men and humanity are central to him (Jakob)," explained senior Kompas reporter P. Swantoro in the preface to Jakob's anniversary book.

In the true spirit of his Javanese background, Jakob's editorials rarely deliver in-your-face criticism.

For three decades this style has helped Kompas avoid the fate of many more vocal publications that were closed permanently by Soeharto's heavy-handed government.

"Some (newspapers) tend to blow problems out of proportion, and are quite provocative. Some others tend to calm. Kompas is more of the latter," said Veven SP Wardhana the director at the Institute for Media and Social Studies.

Jakob was born on Sept. 27, 1931 in Borobodur, Magelang in Central Java.

After a series of teaching posts at junior high schools in the West Java towns of Cipanas, Bogor and later in Jakarta, he entered UGM in 1961 to study mass communication.

The university's book of alumni, published in 1999, said Jakob developed his wide-angled perspective from reading the works of experts in philosophy and mass communication such as Hagemann, De Volder and Wilbur Schramm.

"He (Jakob) doesn't view the various social problems in black and white. He tends to view these problems from a more complex angle, a process, a view of something of 'becoming'," the book said.

From 1956 until 1963 Jakob was also an editor at the Jakarta based Penabur weekly magazine, where he met Ojong.

Afterward, he became the chief editor at the Intisari monthly, an Indonesian version of Reader's Digest.

Together with Ojong he founded Kompas in June 1965, taking up the post as chief editor while Ojong led the Gramedia business group.

When Ojong died in 1980, Jakob took over Gramedia's helm.

He resigned in 2000 to leave the post to a young generation of reporter, Suryopratomo.

Kompas chief editor Suryopratomo said Jakob still attended the daily editorial meetings where he spurred debates with his ability "to see the other side of the coin".

In a preface to the book Pers Indonesia, which Jakob wrote, sociologist Ignas Kleden sees in Jakob's drive for humanity the point where a reporter's job to hunt for news meets its true purpose.

"Spiritually, man don't just live on knowledge but also on understanding; not just on information but also on comprehension, and not just on facts but also on meaning," he said.