Politics banned on Yogya radio stations

Politics banned on Yogya radio stations

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The local authorities have barred private radio stations here from airing political programs, following the broadcast of an interview with a controversial mystic last year.

The provincial office of the Ministry of Information decreed recently that no private radio station was allowed to air political programs because of the risk that such broadcasts would result in public opposition to government polices.

Last year a private radio station, called Unisi, broadcast an interview with Permadi, a mystic critical of government policy, in which he predicted that political upheavals would take place in Indonesia this year.

Permadi, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Psychics, is also alleged to have said, during a seminar at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University early last year, that the prophet Muhammad was a dictator. The imputed comment, reported a year after the seminar at which it was allegedly made, caused outrage among Moslems.

He is now being questioned by police in Jakarta in relation to the alleged statement.

The information office has also decreed that private radio stations must improve the journalistic abilities of their employees.

It has asked the stations to be careful in planning their programs, both editorial and commercial, so as not to provoke restlessness among the public and cause social conflict.

Meanwhile, an lecturer in politics here has said that the Permadi case is a test for the Moslem community. Dr. Affan Gaffar, who lectures in political science at Gadjah Mada University, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend that many people had predicted that the reaction among the Moslems to Permadi's alleged statement about the prophet Muhammad would be more militant than it was.

"Had they over-reacted in this case their action would have backfired," he said

Affan compared Moslems' reaction to the alleged statement to their protest against the Monitor tabloid five years ago, when the magazine printed the results of a popularity poll which put the prophet Muhammad in 11th place, below local figures.

At that time many Moslems staged protest rallies against the tabloid, which was banned by the government because of the article. The magazine's editor, Arswendo Atmowiloto, was later sentenced to five years' imprisonment for dishonoring Islam. (har/tis)