Left-leaning publications struggle to survive

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Over four decades ago, an American political scientist predicted that in the near future, after the triumph of democratic politics and capitalism, ideology would be reduced to insignificance. Hence, the end of ideology.

Today, such a prognosis sounds resoundingly true, with market capitalism and Western democracy taking hold, at least formally, in regions unthinkable as democracies just a decade ago -- Iraq and Afghanistan being the most fitting examples.

In Indonesia, the reign of the open market and of democracy has become a foregone conclusion: What remains to be discussed are nitty-gritty issues on the consequences of its adherence to the market mechanism such as the phasing out of ballooning subsidies and the sale of state assets to boost their effectiveness.

However, there are groups in society that have declined to adopt the conventional wisdom and have engaged in a campaign to disseminate alternative views -- leftist political thinking.

Although falling short of securing an influential mouthpiece like Britain's New Left Review and its book publisher Verso, or The Monthly Review in the U.S., leftist groups here take part in a dialog with those from opposing camps.

More than a decade after the downfall of communism, the groups still promote the ideas of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and one of this country's most celebrated leftist thinkers, Tan Malaka.

The group, already abandoning the totalitarian tendency of Marxist thinking, now uses leftist ideas to make sense of, if not criticize, the prevailing order.

The primary example of a left-leaning publication is Hasta Mitra publisher, owned by ex-political prisoner Joesoef Isak.

Run from a room in the back of Isak's house in South Jakarta, the publishing company recently saturated the book market with the Indonesian version of Marx's Das Kapital.

Hasta Mitra's struggle to survive, however, reflects much about the conditions of most leftist publications in the country.

If Hasta Mitra considered itself lucky to release 10 books a year, some leftist publications have had to scramble for resources to enable their products see the light of day at all.

Lack of funding an ever-present problem

Kritik, a good-quality leftist publication that promotes democratic socialism, was forced to close down before it celebrated its second birthday in 2002.

"Funding has been a perennial problem for leftist publications like us, as we don't strive for commercial gain, so we are forced to close down due to lack of funds," former member of Kritik's editorial team Coen Hussain Pontoh told The Jakarta Post.

Pontoh said the money for Kritik was collected from magazine sales, a method also adopted by another left-leaning magazine, Media Kerjabudaya (Media for Cultural Work).

A serious quarterly on culture, with a circulation of 2,000, Media Kerjabudaya also depends on cash contributions made by members of its editorial staff.

After 11 editions, publication of Media Kerjabudaya has been suspended, probably until early next year. "We need to find younger staff to re-energize this newspaper," Media Kerjabudaya chief editor Razif told the Post.

Razif, also a lecturer at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ), said that apart from financial problems, his newspaper was also short of editorial staff.

The last edition of Media Kerjabudaya, before its hiatus and published in late 2003, carries an article written by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who mused that Bahasa Indonesia was the language of revolution.

The inside of the front cover of the magazine also carries an excerpt from Marx's Das Kapital, which says: " ... and this history, the plunder upon their lives has been inscribed with blood and fire in the book on the journey of the human race."

Despite financial woes, there is, however, one active leftist publication: Pembebasan (Liberation), a monthly newspaper published by the People's Democratic Party (PRD), which has striven to cater for the needs of its readers.

With a circulation of 5,000, Pembebasan was distributed mostly to party members, PRD chairwoman Dita Indah Sari told the Post.

Dita said that the general public did not seem to be interested in her newspaper simply because it was considered "heavy" as it ran in-depth coverage on certain topics.

"The public should read us more so that they would understand better the underlying foundation of our political position, and would not view us as just a naysayer," she said.

Among the greatest problems that currently bedevil Pembebasan is the lack of writers from the opposing camp who are willing to contribute to the newspaper. "We want to have a dialog but most people from the opposing camp simply don't want their names to appear in our paper," Dita said.

The most pressing problem for Pembebasan, however, as for any other leftist publication, is lack of funds.

"We are in need of money to continue publishing, but there is now way that we would accept ads from multinational corporations like Coca Cola," she said.