MPR scuttles press freedom centerpiece

By Atmakusumah

This is the first of two articles on the aborted attempt by Indonesian journalists to ensure press freedom in the country.

JAKARTA (JP): The recently concluded Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) was the most remarkable meeting the Indonesian press has ever seen.

It could have gone down in history for the birth of the greatest workpiece for press freedom in Indonesia in over two and a half centuries. The MPR, however, rejected a draft decree drawn up by a panel of media leaders and legal experts of the Indonesian Press Society (MPI) which would have ensured this freedom of the press.

MPI's proposal, "The Draft Decree of the MPR on the Freedom of Communication and Information through the Mass Media", only garnered the full support of the Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP), which, out of five MPR factions, was the only faction that forwarded the draft decree to the Assembly floor on Nov. 11.

In Indonesia's legal system, MPR decrees are superior to laws enacted by the House of Representatives (DPR). But they are one rank lower than the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, and which the MPR has the power to amend.

The dictum of the draft decree, after modifications by the PPP, read:

Article 1: The state guarantees the right of citizens to communicate and obtain information through the mass media.

Article 2: All legislation concerning the press may not abridge press freedom.

Article 3: [The MPR] charges the President/Mandatory of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia and the House of Representatives to enact laws that guarantee public freedom to communicate and obtain information through the mass media.

Other Assembly factions did not appear eager to endorse the draft decree. In separate meetings with an MPI delegation prior to the MPR Special Session, the factions explained that they already had their hands full with the 12 proposed decrees the Assembly's Work Committee had drafted. They also argued that it was too late to forward a new draft decree because the Work Committee was already done meeting.

However, the talks between the factions and the MPI representatives revealed the "classic apprehension" of some faction members about the meaning of the freedom of the press. They argued that press freedom in any democratic society can never be absolute; that the granting of press freedom does not mean that there are no legal or moral sanctions for the abuse of freedom; and that the press is an instrument for the public to use to obtain information and to disseminate opinions that reflect democracy at work. Thus, press freedom is not for the interest of the press alone, but it is primarily for the public's interest.

Through the print and broadcast media, the clash of vibrant and clamorous views is a part of public education. This clash is designed to develop tolerance toward difference and opposing opinions, a tolerance which is an essential element for a democracy that wants to discourage the use of force.

Indonesia's first minister of information, Amir Syarifuddin, was aware of this power of the press. In October 1945, two months after Indonesia's proclamation of independence, he declared: "Public opinion is the foundation of a democratic government. It is not possible for a press that is not free to express public opinion; it can only express the opinion of those few in power. Thus, our principle is: the press must be free."

Since the archipelago got its first newspaper, the Dutch language Bataviasche Nouvelles en Politique Raisonnementen (Batavian Political News and Reasoning), on Aug. 7, 1744, not a single era in Indonesia's history has ever allowed the press to enjoy total freedom. In the past 254 years, there has been no era that did not have government pressure against and suppression of the press. Pressure and suppression occurred during the Dutch colonial period up to 1942, and throughout the World War II Japanese military occupation from 1942 to 1945.

The fate of the press remained the same after Indonesia declared its independence. In the early years of national freedom, 1945-1949, and even in the "liberal democracy" period of 1949-1959, press history in Indonesia has been marked by numerous clampdowns. Victims of muzzling in 1945-1949 included the newspapers Revolusioner, Patriot and Soeara Iboekota in Yogyakarta; Soeara Moeda in Solo; and Suara Rakjat, the Kediri, East Java, edition.

During the "liberal democracy", print bans were experienced by the newspapers Merdeka and Berita Indonesia; 10 other newspapers and three news agencies were closed in the first mass ban in Indonesian press history (September 1957), and, in 1958, 12 newspapers in Jakarta were shut down.

During the same period, the Dutch-language press had to shutdown when the conflict over West Irian erupted between Indonesia and the Netherlands in December of 1957. All publications not using Latin or Arabic script were banned "because there was an expert manpower shortage for their surveillance" (April 1958). That ban, however, was lifted the following month.

Observers and writers of press history often tout "the honeymoon of press freedom" between the press and the government in the first nine years of the New Order era beginning in 1965. In January 1974, the honeymoon ended when government banned eleven "opposition" newspapers and one newsmagazine. Although many claim that there were no shutdowns for nine years, in reality the government did close 46 left-wing newspapers it believed to be in support of the Sept. 30, 1965 putsch, and "those (newspapers) that do not abide by the press law". The failed coup was blamed on the now banned Indonesian Communist Party.

The writer is past-managing editor of Indonesia Raya, the investigative daily the Soeharto government banned in 1974. He is now executive director of the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute. The above article is translated by Warief Djajanto; the Indonesian version appears in the weekly magazine D&R (Detektif dan Romantika) on Tuesday.