Media is not sympathetic to me: Megawati
Media is not sympathetic to me: Megawati
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri complained on Wednesday over
what she called unbalanced reports by the national media
regarding the increase in utility rates.
Venting her irritation at the media, Megawati said that
newspapers and television stations had always misunderstood her
decisions and turned facts upside down.
"The media is not sympathetic to me, they always perceive my
words wrongly and every time they do that I just sigh," said
Megawati, adding that such reporting had resulted in damaging
public opinion against her administration.
Megawati was speaking in front of participants of a national
meeting of the state ministry for information and
telecommunications.
"I cannot say whether I have to be concerned or not whenever I
see news reports, about what kind of country we have," she said.
According to Megawati, the media had exaggerated stories
against her as had happened again following the hike in utility
rates.
Critics have slammed Megawati for not explaining her policies
to the public at large, particularly the reasons behind the
decision to raise telephone and electricity charges and reduce
the fuel subsidy simultaneously.
She was also roundly criticized last year when she failed to
address the nation and explain her decisions in dealing with
terrorist groups following the deadly bombing in Bali last Oct.
12.
Even her own political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), had warned her to be more
articulate in explaining her policies to the public.
Megawati is known for her silence as she rarely speaks to the
public or gives time to reach out to the people to explain her
decisions.
Her administration has no official spokesperson and she has
always assigned her aides to explain her policies to the public.
The government raised electricity and telephone charges on
Jan. 1 and reduced the fuel subsidy to finance its 2003 budget.
However, few people understand the rationale behind her decision
as she and her Cabinet ministers have failed to explain the
policies to the public.
"Of course I cannot accept it when people wreck our national
flag and burn effigies of Pak Hamzah and I. When did our country
begin to be so impolite?" Megawati asked.
Similar complaints were also voiced by chief expert of the
coordinating ministry for the economy Mahendra Siregar, saying
that the media had been reporting the hike in an unbalanced way.
"The idea that all subsidies have been reduced at once is
prevalent in the press and that I have to complain about,"
Mahendra said.
"With regards to the fuel subsidies alone this is the third
time they have been reduced, it has not been in one big block as
the press is so eager to insinuate. That impression is wrong," he
added.
Meanwhile, Hamzah said on Wednesday the government would not
reverse its policy on the increase in fuel prices and electricity
and telephone rates without a signal from the House of
Representatives.
"The House has the power to decide the state budget ... if it
considers the hike too burdensome to the people, we are open
minded," he told reporters after granting a donation to the West
Lampung administration to help villages recover from floods and
landslides.
Hamzah expressed confidence that the current opposition over
the price hikes was merely due to psychological factors or fear
that the prices of basic commodities would increase following the
hike in utility rates.
Therefore, he said, plans to set up a caucus among legislators
to summon the government over the increase in utility rates and
to use its investigative rights against the policy, was not
necessary.