Openness key to killing rumors

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto made an appeal to the public recently not to believe the rumors that have been making the rounds in society. At the same time he also issued an order to crack down on those who have been fabricating and circulating rumors.

Will this stop people from making up and exchanging rumors?

I am afraid not. Rumors as "unverified information of uncertain origin (and) spread by word of mouth" generally emerge when events of great public interest occur in a society and no credible explanation is offered for them by the existing institutions in charge of disseminating information.

Rumors are thus, in a sense, triggered by unsatisfied public need for information worthy of public belief. As such, rumor is a "natural phenomenon" in any closed society or in any society deprived of credible information.

Living among unexplained mysteries is, according to the late Carl Sagan, like living in a dark world, and in such a situation rumors may look like a "candle in the dark."

Is it true that rumors have thrived in our society lately? I don't know. But if this is indeed true there are, in my opinion, real reasons for it. There have been many important events in our society lately that up to this moment have not been satisfactorily explained by the authorities.

The latest was the sudden dismissal of the attorney general. The explanations offered thus far by government agencies and officials are felt by the public to be totally unconvincing.

Another important event was the announcement of the members of the new Supreme Advisory Council. What puzzled the public was that the new body includes many personalities from the Soeharto regime.

In the public's eyes this is entirely contrary to the spirit of true reform. And the explanation given by the government is very unsatisfactory. It was only stated that the presidential decision in this case was based on recommendations made by the House of Representatives, which in most people's eyes is politically defunct, and also on recommendations from the three political groupings, that is the United Development Party (PPP), Golkar, and the Indonesian Democratic Party's Soerjadi faction.

It is widely known that these three political parties are nothing more than instruments of the old regime, and as such their commitment to the reform movement is at best suspect. And the public wonders why not a single representative from the reform camp, that is groups which have consistently supported the students in initiating and sustaining the reform movement, has been included in this body.

Has the government ever asked people like Amien Rais, Emil Salim, Arifin Panigoro or Kemal Idris to join this body?

It is these unanswered questions that make people infer -- rightly or wrongly -- that Soeharto forces are now making a political comeback?

Some people have even concluded that the reform movement has come to a halt and that counterreform forces are on the ascent.

The sharing of such views among people who yearn for explanations which can be accepted by their common sense constitutes then the seeds of rumors.

It can thus be stated that, generally speaking, rumors do not arise out of a vacuum. Rumors are expressions of the public's yearning for credible information concerning events they consider important.

As such rumors cannot be extinguished by concerted efforts on the part of the government or the Armed Forces.

Rumors can be effectively countered only by credible information. Even if government officials tell the public one thousand times a day that all rumors circulating in society are entirely false or baseless, as long as their explanations of important events do not conform with the basic tenets of common sense, the public will not buy these explanations.

In the absence of credible explanations, certain sections within the public then write their own scenarios explaining what has happened based on their own interpretations of each event.

Certain rumors may be entirely untrue. These are rumors that are likened by Shakespeare to "a pipe, blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures." But it is not unthinkable that some rumors contain some truth. Such rumors are thus partially true, and only partially false.

And it is possible that certain "rumors" contain more truth than lies. The ratio between truth and lies in any rumor can be ascertained only through careful verification. And this act of verification, if done openly and honestly, will without doubt lead toward the revelation of the true causes of important events.

It should be mentioned at this juncture that rumors are not the monopoly of the public. Official information agencies also create and disseminate rumors. The difference is that when rumors come from official agencies, they are not called "rumors" but "disinformation". Such rumors are usually created to mislead the public, to make the public believe what, according to their common sense, is not believable.

If Wiranto is serious in his desire to combat rumors then he must start by instructing his subordinates to be more honest and open with the public. He would do well to remember that the public may not know all the facts related to important events, but as long as it has common sense, it is not blind nor deaf toward what is going on in society. And no force in the world can take away this common sense.

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.