Left-leaning publications struggle to survive

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.