JP/20/MORITZ

JP/20/MORITZ

Former sportsman still has competitive edge

Mario Koch
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After 10 successful years, German Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff, 37,
turned his back on playing professional basketball to become a
journalist in Southeast Asia.

For almost five years now he has exclusively covered the
region as foreign correspondent for four German dailies
(Frankfurter Rundschau, Der Tagesspiegel, Hannoversche Allgemeine
Zeitung and Stuttgarter Zeitung), which jointly sponsor one
reporter.

At his house-cum-office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, he spoke
to The Jakarta Post's Mario Koch about his remarkable career
change and some aspects of the experience it entails.

"Until I was 20, my life was all about basketball; playing as
a professional, driving a new BMW 318 and receiving a monthly pay
check exceeding those of my peers, I somehow felt the world
belonged to me.

"But then I had my first serious injury, forcing me to spend
five months in rehab. Just after I recommenced training, the
injury recurred, with the doctors telling me they were not sure
if it could ever be completely resolved.

"This made me realize for the first time that playing
basketball was not something I could rely on in life, so I
started to study physical education and journalism."

From the age of 27 onwards, Kleine-Brockhoff was almost
continuously in an injured state. Thus, in 1997 he finally
decided to quit playing altogether to focus on his thesis dealing
with another sport, golf, and consequently complete his studies.

"Today, my former teammates begrudge my adding another string
to my bow in time. In turn I begrudge them for their exploding
bank accounts following the Bosman case." [explanation to be
inserted here]

Southest Asia passion

Kleine-Brockhoff developed early a strong personal interest in
Southeast Asia. "I'd been to Singapore with a friend when I was
18. We did this real backpacker thing -- going all the way to
Bangkok by train. Later, I often traveled the region by
motorcycle. When I started to work as a journalist, I had already
been to all the countries and truly wanted to combine the passion
with my professional ambitions."

His wish was granted when he worked with the BBC as part of an
18-month training program with Deutsche Welle and associated
media, being assigned to assist in covering the 1999
parliamentary elections in Indonesia.

Thereafter he worked at BBC bureaus in Hong Kong and Bangkok,
before being sent to cover the independence referendum and its
outcome in Timor Leste.

When militias, backed and instructed by the Indonesian
military, started to systematically devastate the capital, Dili,
killing or driving out its inhabitants, he held out: first
inside, then later on the roof of the city's biggest hotel. He
ended up as the last German journalist in Timor Leste and his
dramatic account was published in Germany's high-quality weekly
Die Zeit, thus bringing the young reporter to the attention of a
wider public in his home country.

"In Dili that time I still was very much a novice to the
business. Even though the development of events didn't come from
nowhere, as there had been widespread violence before the
referendum already, it was still one of the most frightening
experiences in my career.

"Before that, I had only experienced violence on TV, but then
people were killed brutally right before us. When the militias
entered our hotel, firing shots into the ceiling, I really feared
for my own life as well.

"Today, we know they didn't want to kill us, but wanted to
drive us out of there to complete their detestable task without
anyone on hand to witness their action."

Even if Kleine-Brockhoff gradually gained prestige as a
reporter, it was only after almost two years of financially
unstable freelance writing that in 2001 he got the job he still
holds today.

He chose Jakarta as his base and rented a house in up-market
Menteng. "I knew the landlady and renovated the place myself, so
the rent is reasonable. Still, my standard of living is better
reflected in the Daihatsu Taruna outside than by this house."

One spacious room, wallpapered with title pages of Newsweek,
Time or Far Eastern Economic Review and the floor covered by
stockpiled issues of various dailies, serves as his home office.
Here he writes his articles (148 in 2004, with the tsunami being
the dominant issue), always sending them to all four German
dailies, whose total circulation is 1,000,000 copies.

Never a dull moment

Kleine-Brockhoff chooses most of his subjects independently,
with only about 10 percent being specific assignments from
Germany.

"I cover a wide variety of topics that bear some relation to
Germany. From in-depth political analyses, economy and trade to
stories on Inul (the dangdut performer) or the obsessions of
Indonesian women with white skin.

"At the moment I'm working on a profile of this year's Miss
Indonesia. Fortunately, nobody in Germany seems to have realized
yet that she was born in Hanover. This should be a great story
for Hannoversche Allgemeine."

When talking like that, it is obvious that he enjoys his job.
"I particularly like its versatility. One is frequently
confronted with completely new issues and thus forced to keep on
learning about things.

"Of course there are moments of doubt as well -- especially
when one has to worry about one's health or life being in danger.
I felt real fear in Timor Leste in 1999, or when I was in Jolo,
the Philippines, in 2001.

"I was traveling in Patikul, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold,
accompanied by now detained Muslim leader Nur Misuari when our
convoy was fired at.

"More often it is not genuinely fear, but a feeling of
uneasiness that one senses. When I was visiting Ambon, Maluku, in
2000, together with two reporters from Antara for instance. They
sent a Christian for the Christian part and a Muslim for the
Muslim area of the city; I covered the whole of it.

"Just recently, I went to Sulianto Saroso Hospital, North
Jakarta, where suspected bird flu patients are being treated. I
saw a terrifying leaflet that had been published by WHO (the
World Health Organization) about all the precautions to be taken.
Reading it certainly makes you scared.

"But in the end, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
I remember writing about a contest for models, namely the Elite
Talent Search World Final in Singapore. All the journalists
stayed in a five-star hotel and enjoyed all kinds of luxuries.
So, being a foreign correspondent is not so bad after all!"

Kleine-Brockhoff has maintained his distinctly competitive
streak.

The day the interview took place, he had just returned from
the German research vessel, Sonne, to witness the handover to
Indonesia of the first buoy of a tsunami warning system.

Moritz asked to be excused, saying: "I must finish this
article first. I discovered that the operational costs of the
system and who will pay for them is totally unclear.

"I'm sure I'll be first to get this published in Germany."