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)