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.