Press plays tug of war with cultural values

Press plays tug of war with cultural values

The press celebrated its 51st anniversary this week. Ignas
Kleden discusses the clash of values in the history of the press.

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian press, due to its history, has
had some conflicting interests on its shoulders. First, as part
of the struggle for national independence, it was supposed to
strive for setting Indonesia free from the colonial powers and
prepare the new nation for self-determination. It was brought
into existence by necessity and a task which made it a combat
press.

During the Old Order it was faced with the authoritarian style
of the Great Leader of Revolution, which insisted that
everything, including the freedom of expression and freedom of
the press, should be dedicated to realizing the goals of
revolution. This was difficult for the press, which saw the
liberal European press as its only model.

An alternative press was introduced during the period of the
Guided Democracy, in which the leftist press, mostly run by the
Communist party and its affiliated organizations found room to
develop. This introduced another style and ethics, whereby the
revolutionary cause and revolutionary logic stemming from the
class struggle, seemed to justify a lot of linguistic and
political violence aimed at crushing the enemies of the
revolution.

After the establishment of the New Order, the Indonesian press
was called upon to play an important role in disseminating the
political programs of the regime and to eliminate the remnants of
the authoritarian political climate of the Old Order. Freedom of
the press and freedom of expression were heralded as a means to
fight the authoritarian indoctrination and ideological commotion
common during the Old Order, while the anticommunist sentiment
gave the newspapers a militant undertone.

The beginning of the New Order was then celebrated as the
victory to regain freedom which suffered during the Guided
Democracy, almost in the same manner the proclamation of
independence in 1945 was perceived as the national success to
gain freedom from colonial control. However, in both cases,
history repeated itself in that freedom from an old situation was
not substantiated by enough understanding of freedom for a new
one. A clear consensus concerning the former was not accompanied
by a clear agreement about the latter.

In both cases freedom was treated as a means for something
else rather than a goal in itself despite many difficulties. In
case the country was faced with the political consequences of
freedom we were tempted to attribute the origin of the idea of
freedom with the West. But if the idea of freedom is western by
nature, and if anything western must be considered incompatible
with our political culture, why was the struggle for national
independence never seen as a western inspired movement? Why are
we, even today, still so proud of it?

The idea of freedom has not been taken over because it is
western but because it is a necessary thing for Indonesian
people. Freedom is the basic right of every nation and that is
why all sorts of colonialism are opposed to it. This is stated in
Indonesian basic law.

A new controversy about freedom has been revived by recent
attention to local values. This attention to local values has
been endorsed by the idea of "Asian values". The East began to
question why western countries were so forceful in insisting on
the realization of certain values which have emerged in the West
such as human rights.

The government of the developing countries also started
redefining freedom of expression in general and freedom of the
press in particular not as a universal ideal but rather as
something which should and can be modified according to local
conditions. Indonesian "freedom with responsibility" is only one
example.

However, the question which looms large among many developing
countries is: can we judge the validity of values on the basis of
their origin? And are there certain crimes which can be seen as
"Asian crimes" or is it a crime by an Asian? Are the killing
fields of Cambodia an Asian crime or a crime which every
civilized human being will condemn? Is China's cultural
revolution a violation against cultural expression which was
specific of communist China, or a violation which all people of
culture are called upon to protest?

It is important to understand cultural values are a result of
historical and human production. However, the production of
values is by no means equal to the universe to which those values
are to be applied.

After so many years, the Indonesian press is now required to
take local values into account and translate them into freedom of
expression and freedom of the press. The underlying assumption is
that a liberal press is not the only model, since it was produced
in another cultural and historical context.

It is not an easy job because freedom of the press during the
post-independence years and during the first years of the New
Order was an ideological means to set the country free from an
old situation. Today, it is requested to realize a sort of
freedom for a new situation.

The readers of Indonesian newspapers are waiting to see how
the press in this country can solve the double challenge of
becoming real press and Indonesian at the same time.

The writer is a sociologist based in Jakarta.